The story, told through a straight narrative interspersed with tweets from various people, throws together a myriad of very different characters and elements, a sample of which are: a thirty-five-year-old woman who speaks only in whispers, and has not left her home for three years a gardener-turned-psychotherapist who discovers on his thirty-seventh birthday that his marriage is not what he thought it was a wife who tweets her whole life.Īlso important are: a red and white megaphone a handful of cryptic postcards a quirky but supportive friend a young man who cannot ignore the family secret he has overheard a boy with a Dr Who passion a helpful neighbour in a red velour tracksuit a couple of old flames a pair of very different twins a ginger cat named Treacle a cruel and crazy mother, now deceased an absent father and a shack in the woods.Įlliott takes the reader on a slightly bizarre roller-coaster ride that involves quite a few twists and turns before ultimately coming to a heart-warming conclusion. Whispers Through a Megaphone is the first novel by British author, Rachel Elliott. She has heard this phrase a lot, gather yourself, but what does it mean? Is the self a collection of visible parts that can be pulled together in preparation for something or reassembled after a breakage? Miriam spends half an hour thinking about what it might be like to accidentally on purpose mix up the components of herself with those of another person - a woman, perhaps, who is also in the middle of gathering herself, a woman who has left the pieces of her character scattered on the grass in this small park…”

“She sits on the bench and tries to gather herself.

Whispers through a megaphone