The Silent Patient

First, I would like to talk about the speciality of this awesome author, his way of narrating things is path breaking. He added a mix of Greek tragedies in all of his books & connecting them with the scenarios in his book is my favourite part. Like he gave a nice blend of the Greek Mythology of the story of Alcestis and Admetus, which is about a king who is told he must find someone to die in his place to live beyond his fated day, and his wife who agrees to take his place. As this book is named “The Silent Patient” basically here we have a woman Alicia Berenson who became silent after her husband Gabriel died. The police claims that she killed her husband but like I said only she knows the truth, what really happened. Also, we have a character named Theo Faber who is a skilled psychotherapist, & got Alicia’s case by chance, where he has to make her speak. As I read the book, I came to know that Alicia is a successful painter & a devoted wife. For her, her life was perfect with the perfect partner of hers. When everything was smooth on one fine day she noticed that someone is peeping her from the other side of the road, but can’t manage to see his face. She started to see that man more frequently which made her uncomfortable. When she complained about this situation to Gabriel, he simply denied making it a part of her hallucination because of her medication. But she was confirmed about the stranger’s presence nearby her house. She knows someone is there who is keeping an eye on her. But here her voice falls on deaf ears & her only husband was not believing her. Reading the Theo’s version, it felt like he was busy in his own world with a decent wife named Kathy & had a subtle life. But his world comes apart when he found about his wife’s extra marital affair. He started following her everyday to see the man she meets. This all made him feel that he was not enough when he finally saw the man. On the other hand, unaware of the future Alicia Berenson doesn’t know what’s coming for her. Theo decided to end this matter when he can’t stand getting consumed by his wife’s infidelity. So here comes the most awaited climax, Theo broke into Alicia’s home one night, when Gabriel wasn’t home and held Alicia hostage at gunpoint. When Gabriel comes home Theo forces him to choose between his life and his wife. Gabriel, who’s scared to die, chooses to preserve his life over his wife’s life. He exposed her husband of having affair with his wife. This triggers Alicia’s unresolved Trauma from her childhood, resulting in shooting & killing Gabriel. The last painting she draws of her own killing her husband. She mentions in her diary that during her childhood phase, she died once, where the word ‘die’ is metaphor used in a context when her father chose to save her mother’s life over her. The second time she died when her husband choses to save his life & was ready to sacrifice his wife’s life over him. Gabriel’s willingness to sacrifice his wife drives Alicia into a vengeful rage and she kills him. She then falls silent after killing her husband exactly like Alcestis in the Greek mythology. Alicia was feeling guilty on killing her husband & thinks that she deserves to die in this manner that Theo also deserves to pay for his involvement in that night and his other crimes as well. She used her last bit of strength to hide her diary before she slips into a coma. Coming back to Theo who feels guilty about everything. He feels that he let his therapist Ruth down as he did everything against her wishes. Although he admits his guilt but he convinced himself thinking that he had his own reasons to do it & all those things were worth doing it as it deserves. He didn’t know that Alicia was mentally unstable before he broke into her home. He helped Alicia in covering the track of his involvement that night. When Alicia was under treatment, to silence her Theo injects her with morphine to put her in coma & framed Christian for murder, as Theo feels that he deserves to be set up for the murder. This plan almost works until Theo realizes he can’t find Alicia’s diary. He pretends to assist Indira in finding her diary but was unable to find it and gives up, convinced that it doesn’t mention him anyway. After what happened to Alicia, they decided to shut Grove down but Theo was being offered a new position as a director at a new mental facility. It finally took several months, but the police caught up with Theo and brought him in. Alicia decided to hide her diary behind the painting she drew of Theo and herself, the one he hadn’t liked. She wrote how she knew he was made uncomfortable by this painting, so she tucked it in that very place that he would never even think to look. Jean-Felix took it after Alicia passed away and found the diary and gave it to the police. It ends with the police showing up at his house.
Ater reading the whole book with a mind-blowing climax one thing I still didn’t get that why there was an urge in Theo to treat Alicia, to make her speak. May be because of the guilt he had; he would have thought that she didn’t deserves to go through all this. I was satisfied with the end that Theo got arrested because he was a coward, he didn’t confront to his wife about his infidelity. I would rate 9 on 10 for this book & would really recommend the people to read. Also, I would to see this book turned to a movie.

*Note: The above book cover is designed by the book reviewer herself