A Town With No Noise
by Kaaren Smythe
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Pub Date May 15 2025 | Archive Date May 31 2025
Literary Press Group of Canada | Palimpsest Press
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Description
Samara and J., a struggling young couple, are off to J.’s birthplace, Upton Bay, a small town turned upscale theatre and winery destination. Sam has been hired by an editor friend to write a promotional piece about the place while she and J. stay with his grandfather Otto, a prominent businessman in his day.
But their visit does not go as planned. Sam’s explorations of Upton’s tourist attractions lead her to ugly truths behind the quaint little town’s façade—discoveries that are counterpointed with vignettes of the town’s wealthy, elderly ruling class, painting a different picture than the one Sam’s friend expects her to provide. Tensions between Sam and J. worsen as J.’s true nature emerges and Sam begins to question both his values and his family’s past—especially after Otto tells them stories about his time as a German soldier during WW2.
Back in the city, Sam’s opinions and judgments about what is right and wrong are tested when a shocking truth surfaces about her grandmother’s flight from Norway after the war, profoundly changing Sam's understanding of who she is and who she wants to become. In A Town with No Noise, fact and fiction combine to ask difficult questions about the communities we build, questions that are as relevant today as ever: Who stays? Who is chased away? And who decides?
A Note From the Publisher
Themes and storylines in this novel include: the treatment of migrant workers; racism; antisemitism; immigrants to Canada in 1950s with ties to the Nazi party and its atrocities; and Nazi-looted art—all of which are topics in the news in recent years and right up to today.
A Reading Group Guide is being developed for Book Clubs
Advance Praise
"A compelling novel of family secrets and revelations, Karen Smythe’s A Town With No Noise lays bare WWII histories of cruelty, connection, and the bright flame of repair and healing that persists into our present day."–Elise Levine, author of Say This and This Wicked Tongue
"Smythe's narrative wends through deceptively bucolic small-town Ontario, then Toronto, then northern Ontario, to arrive, finally, at the devastating story of a Jewish girl and her family in Nazi-occupied Norway. In this skilful intertextual weave of fiction and true history, the reader is shocked and moved to come upon a past in Europe that Smythe's characters—in Canada—would prefer to forget. "—Dawn Promislow, author of Wan
"Karen Smythe is a brilliant and insightful observer of her character's inner lives, and A Town With No Noise is no exception. [...] Smythe's descriptions are gorgeous and poetic, her pacing deft and precise. A beautiful novel that I couldn't put down."—Danila Botha author of Things that Cause Inappropriate Happiness
"With its inventive layering of a fictional narrative with footnotes, a transcription of a recording, a play, journalism, and historical details, the novel invites us to question how history is written, remembered, and forgotten, and to listen to the stories of others. A Town with No Noise will surprise, move, and push you to see the world differently, as only the best fiction can."—Kasia Jaronczyk, author of Voices in the Air and Lemons
Marketing Plan
Launches in Guelph and Toronto
Print and Digital Ad Campaign
Events with the Norwegian Consulate and/or Cultural Groups
Pitching to Synagogue Book Clubs
Launches in Guelph and Toronto
Print and Digital Ad Campaign
Events with the Norwegian Consulate and/or Cultural Groups
Pitching to Synagogue Book Clubs
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781990293924 |
| PRICE | CA$21.95 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 264 |
