Quiet Time

by Derek B. Miller, Bahni Turpin (Reading)

From the acclaimed author of Norwegian by Night and The Girl in Green comes the story of a family navigating the social media age.

Robert and Mkiwa Livingston are happily ensconced in their tranquil life in Geneva, Switzerland, when Robert's best friend, Gabriel, drops dead from a brain aneurysm, sparking a mid-life crisis. Nostalgic for the New England of his youth, Robert begs his wife for a chance to go back to his native America and the life he left behind. Mkiwa is certain that Robert's yearnings are a recipe for disaster, but she reluctantly surrenders her job as a high-powered human rights lawyer, while their two daughters, Beatrice and Lindia, say good-bye to their circle of international friends and the only life they've ever known.

As the Livingstons settle into their new home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, they - along with the rest of the country - become engrossed in a popular TV show called Quiet Time, about a family who decide to give up all electronic devices and smartphones for one year. The chatter at Marblehead High, normally trained on the show's latest episode, switches abruptly to Beatrice when she's caught on video deftly disarming a would-be gunman during an active shooter drill. She and her family soon find themselves at the center of a social media frenzy as real life and Quiet Time start to overlap and collide. When Lindia goes missing, the past and present - not to mention fiction and fact - become entangled and confused, forcing the Livingstons to pull together to restore both sanity and the family itself.

At its heart, Quiet Time is a story about growing pains - in adolescence and mid-life - and what it means to be a family in a world that feels both hyper-connected and relentlessly alienating. At turns comedic, suspenseful, and poignant, Derek B. Miller pairs his immersive, signature storytelling gifts with Bahni Turpin's singular voice to bring this astounding Audible Original to life.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction

Audio CD

Published September 21, 2021

About the author

Derek B. Miller is an American novelist, who worked in international affairs before turning to writing full-time. He is the author of six novels, all highly acclaimed: Norwegian by Night, The Girl in Green, American by Day, Radio Life, Quiet Time (an Audible Original) and How to Find Your Way in the Dark. His work has been shortlisted for many awards, with Norwegian by Night winning the CWA John Creasey Dagger award for best first crime novel, an eDunnit Award and the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award. How to Find Your Way in the Dark was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and a New York Times Best Mystery of 2021.

Miller is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA), Georgetown (MA) and he earned his Ph.D., summa cum laude, in international relations from The Graduate Institute in Geneva. He is currently connected to numerous peace and security research and policy centres in North America, Europe and Africa, and previously worked with the United Nations for over a decade. He has lived abroad for over twenty-five years in Israel, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Switzerland, Norway and Spain.

Reviews

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“There was still so much about the adult world Beatrice didn’t understand. It was like … they didn’t care about things, only the appearance of things. Was that going to happen to her when she got older or was her generation different?”

Quiet Time is the third stand-alone novel by American author, Derek B. Miller. After fifteen years in Geneva as an ex-pat, Robert Livingston wants to go home. His wife, Mkiwa points out that the America he left is not the one they will find “It’s like you’re having an affair with an alternate reality.” But Robert’s thinking was: “It didn’t matter whether it was a life he still knew. It only mattered it was a life that knew him. The bond. The memory. The history. The soil. This is what his daughters might never have unless he moved them there.”

So they and their two Swiss-born daughters, Beatrice and Lindia move to Marblehead, Massachusetts and begin the task of settling in. Robert, nesting into a real “home” at last, is bathed in contentment; Lindia seems to be on a manic high; Beatrice is not settling in quite so well; Mkiwa? “She felt as though she might choke on the earnestness and lack of irony.”

“To Mkiwa it was a bargain struck and inside those walls and unfurnished rooms was the loud register of a clock that only she could hear; a clock counting down the seconds and minutes of the three years she promised Robert they could live here. Once it chimed the spell would be lifted, her husband cured of his ailment, his hometurning at an end.”

A lockdown drill at Marblehead High School demonstrates the terrifying new normal that Robert’s homeland has reached. A (blackly comic) incident involving Beatrice during this exercise sees her gaining unwanted notoriety on social media, but also making a new friend, Simon Halperin.

Simon’s family is well-off, if a little dysfunctional, with his mother Diane’s life stalled at the point Simon’s twin, Sabrina died, but his parents welcome the Livingstons, and Daniel, while no saint, has some sound advice for Robert.

This is happening against the background of a community enthralled by the latest TV sensation: a program called Quiet Time is following a family of four, the Neilsons, who have unplugged themselves, gone offline. Quiet Time turns out to be a phenomenon dripping in irony, with some viewers choosing to unplug too, while others begin watching, recording and sharing those who have unplugged.

Miller gives the reader some lovely descriptive prose, but his strength is characters and their interactions. Herein is a cast of complex but mostly appealing characters; even one of the obnoxious ones partially redeems himself at the end by making a helpful contribution. Robert can occasionally be delightfully vague, and Beatrice is smart and engaged: her short stories are stunningly perceptive. The dialogue is usually intelligent and occasionally hilarious. Mkiwa, a mixed-race barrister, is awe-inspiring when she makes a case, and her handling of Principal Harding is something to be revelled in.

As well as examining the issue of gun control from a perspective familiar to anyone outside the US, Miller’s story looks at the pressure of connectedness and whether it’s possible to use “technology and connectedness without becoming a victim of it.” After some unplugging of her own, Beatrice concludes: “I feel like I can be myself more when I get less feedback about how it’s going all the time.” Despite the almost overwhelming universal perception of possible and even likely harm from social media, this story also demonstrates its potential for great good.

It also points to the inescapable logic that, in order for policies to be relevant and effective, invested parties, be they indigenous of developing countries, school children, mental health patients, employees, the disabled, or the elderly, need to be integral participants in the decision-making process.

Audio read by Bahni Turpin, Miller’s latest offering is another excellent read: thought-provoking and hopeful for the future, but also filled with (often tongue-in-cheek, sometimes black) humour. Recommended!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by the author.

[Mike Finn · Rating 5 out of 5]



I'm going to try not to gush in this review. Well not after the first paragraph, anyway, but as this is the first paragraph let me just say: Read 'Quiet Time'. It's Derek Miller at his best giving us an engaging, I-need-to-know-what-happens-next story that is often funny and sometimes heartbreaking while still digging into topical big themes about how we live and how we define ourselves. He lets us look at those themes through the eyes of different generations with very different cultural backgrounds AND he does interesting things with the narrative form. If all that isn't enough, the story is narrated by the wonderfully talented Bahni Turpin. Don't miss out on this one.

Ok. Gush over. Here's the review.

One of the things that I admire most about 'Quiet Time' is Derek Miller's ability to write about real people dealing with real-world issues while keeping a light touch and a human focus. The book is filled with humour without trivialising what's going on. He tells his story through the characters rather than about them. His dialogue sparkles with wit but also gives distinctive voices to the main characters.

The focal point of 'Quiet Time' is His focal point is the Livingstone family. They are clearly drawn and seemed fully-formed from the beginning of the story. We get to know them by watching them deal with the consequences of moving to an alien environment.

Robert Livingston is an American, from Marblehead, Mass, who works for the UN on designing and implementing processes to make conflict resolution and peacebuilding more effective. His wife, Mkiwa, is a British woman of Yoruba (Nigerian) descent who works as a Human Rights lawyer. They've spent their married lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Their two daughters, Beatrice and Lindia, were born there and attend an International School where most of their friends are also foreigners. They live in a multi-lingual environment and the women in the Livingston family are fluent in English, French and Swahili. Robert is fluent in American and can pick his way through French.

Things change when Robert starts 'Home Turning', experiencing a growing hearing to return to the New England of his youth. Switzerland doesn't feel like home. He feels stifled by Switzerland's endless stability. His daughters are not Swiss just because they were born there. They both have US passports and he wants them to take up their birthright.

Mkiwa points out that they have a privileged life in Switzerland, that the America of twenty years ago that Robert yearns for doesn't exist anymore and that their daughters will be moving to an alien culture.

Despite this, the Livingston's move to Marblehead, a rich, picturesque, small town on the Massachusetts coast

I found this set up particularly compelling because I also lived in Switzerland, on Lac Léman, for eighteen years so I'm very familiar with the environment and culture that the Livingston's lived in. I returned to my native UK three years ago and, even though I'm living in the same house, in the same town, found that the England I left doesn't exist anymore.

One of the things that works well in 'Quiet Time' is that we get to see Marblehead through different lenses: the Livingston adults, one white male returning home but having no friends and no job, the black and British high-powered lawyer, used to confrontations with international tough guys and now facing up to a belligerent HighSchool Principal, and the two mixed race-daughters with the non-American accents, the youngest of whom, Lindia, is a fiercely competitive fencer and the elder, Beatrice who is homesick and struggling to establish her identity in this new environment.

This allows for a comedy of conflicting expectations and misunderstandings, sets up some stark cultural conflicts and raises questions of identity, family and community.

For example, Beatrice finds that, in Marblehead, the colour of her skin is more important than when she was in an International School that drew students from around the world. She's not sure how she should define herself. He reflects that she actually is African American as her mother is African and her father is American but accepts that the term means something quiet different in Marblehead and doesn't fit her well at all.

One of the biggest points of cultural difference comes when Beatrice experiences her first Active Shooter Drill at school, get's freaked by it and takes down the fake police officer who is aiming his finger at each child and shooting them, Her classmates capture this on their phones and the video goes viral.

This is a powerfully written scene that taps into the heart of the book. I admire how Derek Miller can use a single scene to explore multiple themes while still delivering an engaging read. The drill is a traumatic experience for Beatrice. It brings Mkiwa into play around challenging the effectiveness of the drills. It shows the things the locals take for granted that incomers find incomprehensible. It links to the impact of social media on real-life as Beatrice becomes famous on the Internet but doesn't recognise or accept the person who appears there.

The 'Quiet Time' of the title refers to a new cult Reality TV show that follows a family that has unplugged from all digital devices to get some quiet time but whose every move finds its way on to television and or social media where everyone bath them can see it. This provides a route into understanding the challenges young people face in finding and protecting an authentic identity as they grow up in an always-connected, infinitely recursive world where people’s stories become entangled as they watch people watching them on social media. The effect is amplified as Beatrice's online persona takes on a reality of its own, intersects with the 'Quiet Time' show and finally reaches into real life in Marblehead.

I loved that Beatrice had to explain 'Quiet Time' to Mkiwa, who is then amazed at how much information, research and discussion there is around what she'd dismissed as a piece of entertainment. I also loved that Beatrice intuitively rejects the persona that has been built for her on the Internet, seeking privacy and insisting on her own identity and how this leads to her being an even bigger Internet personality.

I was amused by Robert, a very clever man who has spent his life dealing with complex problems and yet struggles with day-to-day practical issues like finding a job and living within his means and who is finally having to accept that re-engineering the whole world may not be viable and that smaller, simpler arrangements need to be thought about.

'Quiet Time' isn't just a showcase for ideas. It's a story where you want to know what happens to the people you care about. It shows us the growing friendships between the Livingston's and a prominent local family who, beneath their affluence are living with a family tragedy that has produced so much grief that it has strangled hope. We have a drama a Lindia disappears and we get a resolution where the two families start to work together on making their part of the world better.

There were a number of times when the structure of 'Quiet Time' reminded me of a Kurt Vonnegut novel. There are stories within stories. Not just the people on the Internet watching each other live their lives but stories that Beatrice is asked to write to 'process' the violence of her Active Shooter Drill experience. Both these stories are fascinating in their own right and are then used to trigger real-world reactions as their meanings and consequences are discussed by the powers that be.

I found 'Quiet Time' to be a fun book to read, that also felt real and topical and did interesting things with form. What more could I ask for?

[A J HOOPER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful and circular book dealing with instant media and instant fame. Is the phenomenon of Tik Tok making teenagers too self conscious and unable to live a "real" life? A TV reality show Quiet Time puts two teenagers into media lockdown expecting that their lives will branch out into more old fashioned pastimes. They don't anticipate that the teenagers friends will tell them what's going on in the global world anyway.
One of the things going on is the relocation of the Livingstone family from sophisticated and international Geneva moving to Marblehead, US. Major culture clashes and misunderstandings ensue, starting with the school's lockdown drill . 16 year old Beatrice misunderstands the practice drill, panics, thinking it is the real thing, knocks out and overcomes the burly actor pretending to be a terrorist. When this appears on the net it goes There were some hurdles for me though. The most annoying problem was the relentless bad temper of Beatrice and the complete thoughtlessness of Robert Livingstone, father of this multi ethnic brood. If I were married to someone who thought of me in nothing but terms of sex and who appeared to have no inkling of how hard I worked for my family, I would rapidly get shot of him. Robert alas is this man.
There were umpteen references to author Stephen King throughout the narrative and it became apparent that Derek Milker must be a King affficionado because I realised that this original audiobook is a narrative after King's own heart, very much written in his style.
Eventually so many people are watching real life events that the fortunes of the Livingstones and Quiet Time become entertwined. The ending is pleasingly complete and skilful.

[Laura Scavo · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I very much enjoyed Miller’s Norwegian by Night, and his American,by Day, this book was not nearly as enjoyable, although it kept me engaged enough to finish it (earning it two stars). There is an apt description of a trauma response as Beatrice experiences a lockdown drill at school, though Miller creates an absurd and unbelievable scene with a fake policeman, waving a real (if unloaded) gun at school children to create the trauma. He lost me there, and never regained my trust. Beatrice is required to apologize for being traumatized, and we are supposed to believe the school district is free to traumatize again. There are other equally absurd scenes and situation’s scattered throughout the novel.

His characters were often unsympathetic, unlikable, and overly eloquent in everyday situations - do real people reference and quote this many texts, authors, movies, TV shows, etc? And do their children? About so very many political, social, and cultural issues and in such elevated vocabulary? And so many lists and texts within the text to pull the reader outside the story itself. I felt the novel never really found it’s center. But we get a nice tidy ending for all main characters. Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Rich, good looking, and famous.

I see others have really enjoyed this book, and if a reader can suspend their disbelief and buy into the world Miller creates, have at it.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

At Robert’s insistence, his wife Mkiwa, 15-year-old daughter Beatrice, and 11-year-old Lindia, move from there home in Geneva to the home of his youth, Marblehead, Massachusetts. Robert and Mkiwa have long been part of the international community, in both life and work. Mkiwa has very reluctantly agreed to Robert’s pleas, telling him she’ll give it three years. She’s concerned about their being a multiracial family in the US, about American politics and gun culture.

This book is about the family’s first year in Marblehead, and to a great extent, about how social media often overwhelm them, especially Beatrice. Mkiwa was right to be concerned, though her concerns play out in very unexpected ways. Family dramas aren’t my reading interest, but Derek B. Miller has never let me down. The book kept my interest despite being outside my usual parameters.

[T.J. Norris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the intercultural and emotional intricacies of this story, the themes addressing the prevalence of gun violence and social media saturation and the lives of our youth. The performance by the narrator of so many different voices lacked authenticity and therefore made it difficult for me to fully enjoy. I probably should have read this in a format other than audio. The storyline was unique, although there were strong influences from reality television and The Truman Show.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel unbelievably lucky to be able to read TWO Derek Miller books in one week. I find his work to be both insightful and entertaining, as well as extremely well-written and really, who can ask for more than that?

This book had so much to say about the way we live our lives online. The characters were smart and funny and soulful. The story was intriguing.

I'm planning to read everything this author writes and highly recommend you do the same.

[Sierra Penrod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Derek Miller is a versatile author that I really enjoy, and he has a way of weaving complex thoughts into simple prose. There were parts that I really enjoyed about this book. The ending was a little tidy for my taste, and I think the book showed a little distance from the teen experience he was trying to capture. His writings about the adult characters resonated with me more truthfully. But it was an interesting book on online and physical communities that held my interest.

[Jenifer Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Derek Miller. And this book was wonderful. Read by one of my absolute favorite narrators, Bahni Turpin!! If you don’t have an audible subscription, it would be worth a free trial to listen to this one. Then, you can stop supporting Amazon and get your audiobooks from your local bookstore through Libro.fm.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.65. Audiobook. Might have been a higher rating for me if it was visual. I get distracted by one voice reading all parts.

[Teresa Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I’ll read anything written by this author. I love his stories. His novels are are always timely and make me think and ask questions where I’d not necessarily do so if not prompted. And his stories always prompt me in so many ways. Interesting premise and I’d highly recommend given the times we are living in at this moment.