The Silent Land Audiobook By Graham Joyce cover art

The Silent Land

A Novel

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Silent Land

By: Graham Joyce
Narrated by: John Lee
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.24

Buy for $17.24

Award-winning novelist and cult favorite Graham Joyce transports listeners to a mysterious world of isolation and fear with this hypnotically dark story - a daring and powerful novel about love, loss, and rebirth.

In the French Pyrenees, a young married couple is buried under a flash avalanche while skiing. Miraculously, Jake and Zoe dig their way out from under the snow - only to discover the world they knew has been overtaken by an eerie and absolute silence. Their hotel is devoid of another living soul. Cell phones and land lines are cut off. An evacuation as sudden and thorough as this leaves Jake and Zoe to face a terrifying situation alone. They are trapped by the storm, completely isolated, with another catastrophic avalanche threatening to bury them alive… again. And as the couple begins to witness unset­tling events neither can ignore, they are forced to con­front a frightening truth about the silent land they now inhabit.< /p>

The Silent Land is a brilliantly conceived novel that puts a husband and wife in a strange and frightening reality where it would seem they are the last two people on Earth. Together they will face the ultimate test of their love for each other, and they will be forced to decide what their lives are worth - and what they will sacrifice to save each other. Joyce has written a mysteri­ous masterpiece, a tour de force that will thrill fans of Peter Straub and the hit television show Lost.

©2010 Graham Joyce (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Thriller & Suspense Psychological Scary Horror Suspense Fiction Marriage Classics Fantasy Exciting

Critic reviews

“[A] gently haunting fantasy thriller.” ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant

What did you love best about The Silent Land?

The surprise ending

What did you like best about this story?

It was just an interesting book, the subject matter was not something you see over and over again, that's nice.

What about John Lee’s performance did you like?

Very good reader

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Two went for a ski, no one else came back.

Any additional comments?

This is a great book, you will love the story, and be shocked by the ending.

Excellent read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's a great story, and not as predictable as one might think. My only complaint is that the reader makes the characters, particularly the female character, seem vapid. But the story is so good that it's worth it anyway.

A compelling story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Sometimes a book is good enough that I get mad at it for being so good. This is one of them. Dang book. Made me listen to the whole thing in one sitting and then burst into tears at the end.

If you want something scary and fast, this isn't your book. If you want to be absolutely shocked, look elsewhere. It is unsettling, and there is a twist, so to speak, but it's mostly a story about a couple and what makes a life. There's some beautiful writing here, and the narrator is lovely.

Obligatory NSFW warning: there's scenes of lovemaking that are described in detail, so don't listen to this on a family road trip or work carpool. It's not gross or obscene and it's appropriate to their story, but it is vivid. Great Aunt Maude or Carol from accounting might have a fainting spell over it.

It was beautiful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Story was interesting and right up my alley but I did start to figure things out fairly quickly but not knowing for sure I finished it. I don’t want to give anything away…Not at all saying the ending is bad it’s just not the type of book I usually choose but wouldn’t have known that when starting it.
If you like romance with a little mystery you will certain enjoy it. I did.

Interesting story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Silent Land by Graham Joyce is one of those books that just quietly messes with your brain in the best way. It starts off pretty simple—couple survives an avalanche on a ski trip—but then it slowly turns into something way more eerie and layered than you expect. What I loved most is how intentional everything feels. All the weird little details and moments that seem “off” actually matter, and by the end it all comes together in a way that’s super satisfying without feeling overdone.

The vibe is honestly the standout. It’s got that heavy, isolated, almost liminal feeling—like everything is just slightly wrong but you can’t fully explain why. The empty town, the silence, the slow unraveling… it builds tension without trying too hard, which I really appreciate. And the relationship between the couple keeps it grounded so it doesn’t drift too far into abstract weirdness.

The ending? So good. It didn’t feel like a cheap twist—it felt earned. Once everything clicks, you realize how many breadcrumbs were there the whole time. It’s the kind of ending that makes you want to go back and reread just to catch everything you missed.

That said, I will say—I’m not a prude, but the sex scenes just weren’t it for me. They felt unnecessary and a little more graphic than they needed to be, especially for the tone of the book. It kind of pulled me out of the story a bit because everything else is so atmospheric and subtle, and then those moments just felt… out of place.

Overall though, I really loved it. It’s a slow-burn, slightly unsettling, “sit and think about it after” kind of book—and those are always my favorite.

Quietly Unsettling, Perfectly Layered With One Slight Miss

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews