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“Smart, cool, articulate, funny, and savvy—Noa P. Singleton dares you to put her story down.”
— Rosamund Lupton, New York Times bestselling author
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“An intense and gripping novel of betrayal and guilt that forces readers to confront their convictions and the limitations of their capacity for empathy.”
— Ayelet Waldman, New York Times bestselling author
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“A fantastic first book.”
— Herman Koch, New York Times bestselling author
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“In The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, Elizabeth Silver puts the human factor front and center, to devastating effect. Guilt and innocence, capital punishment, the living hell of death row, all these get their due, but at the heart of it is us, the ongoing mystery of what lies inside our souls.”
— Ben Fountain, New York Times bestselling author
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“Noa is
endlessly complex and impossible to trust. Don’t try to outsmart her—you can’t.
Just let her manipulate, shock, and maybe even move you.”
— Entertainment Weekly
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“In this
grippingly off-kilter thriller, a young woman sits on death row after being
convicted of murder until a high-powered attorney–the victim’s mother–intervenes, leaving everyone to wonder why.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine
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“Bracing
and combative…a classic slow-burn, with Ms. Silver spinning the web…and
masterfully revealing the threads that connect [the characters] to each other
and to the crime…The novel proceeds to its heart-wrenching conclusion by a
series of feints and betrayals that would make Gillian Flynn stand and
applaud.”
— Wall Street Journal
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“I cannot
recall a debut novel written more skillfully than The Execution of Noa P.
Singleton…It works as a first-rate murder mystery…In terms of literary style,
Silver reels off memorable sentence after memorable sentence. I look forward to
reading her next book.”
— Dallas Morning News
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“In lucid,
fast-moving prose, Elizabeth Silver, who comes well-equipped for the task with
a JD and an MFA, constructs an intricate and thoughtful psychological
thriller.”
— San Francisco Chronicle
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“[A] tense
and multi-layered first novel…Noa’s powerful voice, full of attitude and
alienation, commands attention throughout the book…In Noa, Silver has created
an articulate and intelligent protagonist who asks us to revisit our existing
notions of victimhood.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
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“A
sophisticated debut novel… Silver deftly handles dark and weighty topics
without ever sacrificing a literary attention to detail… But Silver is aiming
for something more than good writing, satisfyingly complicated characters or a
page-turning mystery…The Execution of Noa
P. Singleton is a not just a novel but a mirror upheld to a fragile, human
criminal justice system.”
— St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“[A] searing debut…This devastating read stands less as a polemic against the death penalty than as a heartbreaking brief for the preciousness of life.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“A darkly witty, acerbic jigsaw puzzle of a first novel…[Silver] explores convolutions of guilt and innocence beyond the law’s narrow scope with a sharpness and attention to detail that can be unnerving but demands attention.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is mortal war between ferocious women, told with a fiery and merciless lyricism so beautiful it hurts.”
— Katherine Dunn, author of Greek Love
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“Elizabeth L. Silver is a writer to watch out for, one of great scope and passion. Here she tackles a bold topic with skill, compassion, and verve.”
— Jill Dawson, author of Fred & Edie