Adler said that the lucky people use childhood to heal a lifetime, and the unfortunate people use a lifetime to heal childhood.
Unfortunately, Alicia Berensen falls into the latter category. Alicia, a painter and the protagonist of the suspenseful mystery novel The Silent Patient, is, yes, the silent patient.
Take a look at the honors created by this book:
It dominated the best-selling edition of The New York Times for 392 days
In the first year of publication, it has issued 102 editions and sold well in 45 countries
Sold more than 3 million copies worldwide
2019 AMAZON BOOK OF THE YEAR
2019 Amazon's Annual Suspense Masterpiece
Readers of the 2019 book review website Goodreads voted for suspenseful masterpiece of the year
About the author
Alex McLeez, the supernova of suspense. Million-selling author and screenwriter. His father was Greek Cypriot and his mother was British. He holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Cambridge and a Master of Arts in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.
Greek mythology was Alex's eternal inspiration, and the entanglement of fate in Greek mythology and any of its psychological theories captivated him deeply, leading him to inject the deep core of Greek mythology into the novel.
In The Silent Patient, Alex combines Christie-like reasoning with a strong knowledge of psychology to complete a work that is unique in the world.
Alcutis and Alicia
In Greek mythology, Admetos was sentenced to death by the Three Goddesses of Destiny. Fortunately, Apollo's intercession gave him a chance: if he could persuade another person to die for him, he could be spared death. Admetos went to his parents, who refused. At this time his wife, Archetis, stepped forward and offered to die on behalf of her husband. Admetos accepted her request, so Alcutis died generously and resolutely went to the underworld. Unexpectedly, Hercules rescued Alcutis from purgatory and successfully returned to the human world. She died and rose again.
When Admethos was reunited with his wife, he was moved to cry. Alcutis remained silent, and she didn't say a word.
Why? Why doesn't she speak?
Gabriel was tied to a chair, and Theo pointed a gun at him, very coldly, very calmly, and said, "I was going to send you to the West, but Alicia interceded for you and asked me to spare you from death, so I gave you a chance." Either you die or Alicia dies and it's up to you to choose. Let's see how much you love her and are you willing to die for her? As the countdown progressed, Gabriel didn't say that I love you, only a faint and distant "I don't want to die." ”
Theo left, and Alicia picked up the gun and pulled the trigger on her husband's face.
Aisilia remained silent, and she didn't say a word.
She was taken in by the psychiatric clinic and became the infamous "silent patient", the only thing left to the outside world was a strange self-portrait of "Alketis".
Alicia, who referred to herself as Alcutis. He was willing to die for his husband, but he did not want to be executed for his betrayal. Although the dead were resurrected, there was only one walking corpse. Since then, it has become the silent Alcutis.
Once the scars of childhood are uncovered, they will fall into the abyss forever
Alicia's childhood was unfortunate, she witnessed her mother die in a car accident. The father, unable to bear the blow of losing his wife, once vainly said that he hoped that Alicia would die for his mother.
Young Alicia witnessed her father's words and deeds. Deeply shocked, her heart has been sentenced to death by her father. He was hurt by his father's words, and her heart was killed by his father.
Sentenced to death by the person he loved most, it was like a scar that remained permanently in the heart of young Alicia.
Unfortunately, the scars were once again uncovered by her husband, Gabriel, and once again sentenced to death by her loved one. Alicia says:
I see it clearly now. I've never been safe and never loved. All my hopes have come to naught; all my dreams have been shattered. Nothing was left, nothing—my father was right—I shouldn't be living in this world. I'm nothing — nothing. That's how Gabriel treated me.
That is the truth. I didn't kill Gabriel. He was the one who killed me.
I just pulled the trigger.
epilogue
The harm suffered by a person in childhood will surely reappear at some point in the future, and even push people down the abyss.
"The Silent Patient" not only gives us a wonderful reasoning drama, but also makes me feel that you must be gentle with your child, because maybe one of your casual words will cause him a lifetime of harm.