And Silent Left the Place

by Elizabeth Bruce

Fiction. The burden of silence passes from old to young in this lyric tale of violence, redemption, and love reclaimed in the cruel, dry land of Texas. Richard Bausch has said of AND SILENT LEFT THE PLACE: "Elizabeth Bruce's characters leap off the page at you; they have vividness and substance, and the result, reading her work, is that one feels the life there." Bruce, the winner of the 2007 Washington Writers' Publishing House Fiction Competition, has published in The Washington Post, Writers' Roundtable, The Long Short Story, and other publications.

Genres: Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Elizabeth Bruce’s debut novel, And Silent Left the Place, won Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s Fiction Award, ForeWord Magazine’s Bronze Fiction Prize, and was one of two finalists for the Texas Institute of Letters’ Steven Turner Award for Best Work of First Fiction. Her short story collection, Universally Adored and Other One Dollar Stories, will be published by Vine Leaves Press in 2024. She has published prose in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malawi, India, Yemen, and The Philippines, including in FireWords Quarterly, Pure Slush, takahē magazine, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Inklette, Lines & Stars, and others, as well as in anthologies by Vine Leaves Press, Paycock Press, Madville Publishing, Weasel Press, and Washington Writers’ Publishing House. Her educational book, CentroNía’s English and Spanish editions of the Theatrical Journey Playbook: Introducing Science to Early Learners through Guided Pretend Play garnered awards from four indie book contests. As an actor she co-founded DC’s Sanctuary Theatre with Michael Oliver and Jill Navarre. She’s co-written scripts performed at the Adventure Theatre and the Capital Fringe Festival; one of her plays won Carpetbag Theatre’s W.F. Lucas Playwrighting Competition. Bruce has been awarded several fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Poets & Writers, and the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation. She’s workshopped fiction with Richard Bausch, the late Lee K. Abbott, Janet Peery, John McNally, and Liam Callanan. An honors graduate in English from The Colorado College, Elizabeth and her husband, writer/educator Robert Michael Oliver, have long lived in NE DC where they raised their two adult children,

Reviews

[Sarah Pleydell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great counterpunch to the tradition of the great but merciless Texan novel. Scrupulously authentic in terms of place and person, it brings the heart to bear on the scars of the mind. No stone is left unturned.

[Mayna C · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a reader, I felt immersed in the lives and language of those that lived in the desolate desert area of rural Texas. It is a place where one would expect to be bored; however, the characters have depth and there is much drama that unfolds at every turn. It is a beautiful story about good people with flaws and deep wounds that find healing and redemption in unexpected ways.

[Nathan Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sense of place in this well-plotted novel.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not love this book. Very confusing!

[Howard Cincotta · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title refers to a tramatized veteran of World War I who returns home to Texas, unable to speak, except in a secret underground chamber. The novel's action, however, takes place in 1963 and focuses primarily on a set of extravagant out-sized characters caring for and battling each other in a vast Texas landscape that dwarfs them all.

There is a plot, including a brutal nighttime assault, but it is the voices of the characters, and the stories they tell, that drive the story. Parts of the novel don't seem to fit all the time, but this is a strange compelling book nevertheless.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast read!