This Taste for Silence

by Amanda O'Callaghan

The balance of power in a marriage shifts, with shocking consequences. An elderly woman recounts a chilling childhood memory on the family farm. A taxi driver with a missing wife reveals unexpected skills. An inherited painting brings an eerily troubling legacy.

Subtle, compelling and unsettling, Amanda O’Callaghan’s stories work at the edges of the sayable, through secrets, erasures and glimpsed moments of disclosure. They shimmer with unspoken histories and characters who have a ‘taste for silence’.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Contemporary, 21st Century

208 pages, Paperback

Published June 4, 2019

About the author

Amanda O’Callaghan’s fiction has been awarded and shortlisted in the Bath Flash Fiction Award, Bridport Prize, Bristol Short Story Prize, Carmel Bird Award, Fish Short Story Prize, Flash 500 and others. A former advertising executive, Amanda holds English degrees from King’s College London, and a PhD from the University of Queensland. In 2016 she was a recipient of a Queensland Writers Fellowship.

This Taste for Silence is her debut short story collection. It was short-listed for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and has been long-listed for the Edge Hill Prize in the UK.

She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Reviews

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘I think there’s a time, in all bad things, when you wonder how it came to this.’

Two hundred and eight pages, twenty-one short stories. The stories range in length from (just under) one page, to forty pages. These concrete metrics provide physical parameters … but tell you nothing about the characters which each story brings to life.

This is a debut collection of short stories, covering several different life situations, situations about which (and sometimes within which) silence is considered appropriate. The stories include experiences of illness and bereavement, betrayal, disappearance, vulnerability. Some experiences we don’t talk about, others we hope to avoid. Look closely, the stories seem to be saying to the reader, look beyond what is obvious, move beyond observation into sensation. How does it feel? What happens next?

Each of these stories had an impact, some more than others. My favourite is ‘Things’, about a woman whose hoarding seems (to me) to be both a way of holding onto the past while denying the possibility of a different future. And in the present, where we find her, is an outsider looking in seeing what?

I finished each story, wondering what came before and what might happen next. Each story is self-contained, but it need not remain so.

Highly recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Taste for Silence (UQP 2019) is an extraordinary debut collection of short stories by author Amanda O'Callaghan. Some of the stories are extremely short, less than a page, and some are much longer, but what they all have in common is beautiful, descriptive language, evocative imagery, tightly controlled sentences and well-drawn mini-portraits of compelling characters. The stories themselves are mostly of ordinary people going about the mundane business of living, but O’Callaghan manages to infuse even the seemingly most banal situation with poignancy, tenderness or – quite often – dread. Almost every tale is suffused with an imminent death, or a loved one mourned, or a sinister mortal threat, or a memory of vanished things, a disappearance or a haunting, a loss, an absence, a legacy. The title is apt – this is indeed a book that has a taste for silence, for the who, where, when, how and why of silence, and its aftermath.
In the opening story, a lonely widow risks being vulnerable, and it doesn’t turn out well. And the early stories are often about illness and bereavement. There is a tale of a hoarder who once had a very different life. There are stories of possessions, and what they mean to those who keep them; the pain when they are lost; the unknowable mystery of old things passed down through so many generations that their meaning is no longer clear. Characters manipulate others in ways unexpected and shocking. There are secret children and hidden children and lost children and dead children and estranged children and neglected children. I think my favourite is The Golden Hour, where ‘…each feeling is compressed, shaped by tiny degrees into a new form. Too slow to be noticed. Like pitch dropping…’ – a story with a conclusion that is shocking but also made me feel strangely elated. There are stories of marriages and journeys and fears. The ways people cope with the horror of death; the small things that relieve them, that carry them onwards. Characters who bury their pain deep inside themselves, with only small chinks of the memory of it occasionally seeping out.
These are not joyous stories; they are unsettling and thought-provoking and haunting. But they are also graceful and refined, beautifully rendered. The writing is spare and fine, never saying too much but only hinting at what lies beneath. History, memory, past actions and beliefs, all are laid out with a light touch, inviting the reader to use their own imagination to delve deep and conjure up the unsaid.

[Fiona Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of short stories and flash fiction is assured and smooth, and the book is a delightful read from beginning to end. I finished it within two days, drawn in by tales of secrets and intrigue.
Amanda O'Callaghan writes with an ease and lightness that belies the power of her stories.

[Kali Napier · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of stories. Amanda O'Callaghan has an acute ear for dialogue, for the nuanced and idiomatic expressions, the throwaway lines of frustration, absurdity, and heartache that people bandy about everyday. Some stories are only a page long -- flash fiction -- but provide vignettes of the whole of a person's sorrow or broken life. Other stories, like my favourite 'The Painting', are more traditional length but contain the burdens of generations

[Susan Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amanda O’Callaghan’s 'This Taste for Silence' promises an examination of the nature of solitude, identity and the darker places in our lives we keep secret. I could tell this from before I opened the book. Because of the richly evocative and divinely inspired cover, remarked upon by the bookseller as I offered up O'Callaghan's collection to purchase. The cover image is indeed beautiful and highly prophetic in terms of the subject matter.

Considering I’m a widow, four years of grief and bewilderment still inside, washing about, the first story hit me with an open hand and squeezed so many emotions from me: despair, determination and that soft desperation for company many of us experience. But at what cost? I was filled with recognition and also fear. The story touched me so deeply and I found it terribly confronting, but also compulsive. Nothing can be taken for granted again and nothing will ever be the same. The juxtaposition between the safe, sensible harbour Maureen had dwelled within for so many years, and the sharper new company she keeps is indeed a moral caution. Now the widow needs to be wary. And beware of what is beyond four walls. 'A Widow's Snow' was the most absorbing and powerful narrative in the book.

But then there are also the very short pieces. Where we see and understand and go - oh yes. I've done that! I'm going to be the good little girl who acts like the perfect patient and doesn't upset the people around me no matter what aches within. Then the kindness of a female stranger. 'An Uncommon Occurrence' was a story that shifted my heart and the brevity worked perfectly. Less or more would have meant the reader missed the small trailing strings of tenderness.

Another piece, towards the end, 'These ordinary Nights' offers up an illustration of frustration and bitterness and the things we live with but turn away from, as if by not addressing the problem it will disappear. One of my favourite phrases exists within this story: his cheeks flocked purple with rage. O'Callaghan has the ability to run a seemingly simple sentence into an image with one perfectly positioned verb.

The beauty and intelligence of this collection is the seeing of oneself on the page. I loved this deceivingly neat, provocative, little treasure chest of a book. Thank you.

[Maree Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard a lot of good things about this short story collection but (due to some recent reads that hadn't lived up to the hype) kept my expectations in check.

I needn't have worried. I loved each and every story in this collection.

In some ways, O'Callaghan's work reminds me of some of the best of Roald Dahl's short stories, those ones that are nuggets of perfection, encapsulating something both small and miraculous about what it means to be human.

The prose is lovely but more than that, the stories have a vibrancy and energy that lift them out of of the realm of ordinary.

I bought this book at the 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival, started reading it on the bus then abandoned my other half read novels so I could devour it, finishing the collection in 24 hours. I'll be dipping back in over time to re-read my favourites.

If you love short stories, you'll love This Taste for Silence. Highly recommended.

[Tracey Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I loved this book! It made me appreciate micro-fiction! I'd foolishly dismissed it before, but if a writer can engage/devastate me in a few paragraphs, that's a real talent.

Stand-out stories:

The News - This was wonderful. Very strong visuals, incredibly effective. Brief story about a piece of news flying into a party for a specific woman. Doesn't state what the news is, but it doesn't matter. Loved it.

Things - When I woke up the day after reading this, I'd forgotten what this story was about. So when I re-read the first line again, I gasped, as it all came back. This was super good. Female hoarder (but that only becomes apparent in seeds throughout the story). Makes friends with a male neighbor.

Legacy - I read this one twice, because I was tired the first time I read it. Glad I did, because this was amazing. A teacher dying of cancer, two brothers, a cliff. Quite horror.

New Skins - Loved this one. A young boy, an absent mother, neighbors with a dog, a mysterious death by drowning. Beautiful.

The Memory Bones - This was a longer one, so I could really get my teeth in. Young girl, memories of an aborted swimming trip with her grandma. Grandma now has dementia. Shares a disturbing memory of why she fled the water. Really fucking good.

The Painting - Thanks to Roald Dahl, I have a fear of being trapped in a painting. Or having people appear in paintings that had not previously been there. So this story terrified me. It's about a haunted painting. Just read it, it's great.

[Julie Seidel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is 4 .5. Stars from me. This is an exquisite collection of beautifully written short stories and super short one pagers. She evokes and describes in spare but delightful prose both place and person.
I would highly recommend this to anyone not sure of short stories. I will be returning to my favorites I’m sure

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A haunting collection of short stories portraying uncanny (and sometimes downright disturbing) snapshots of life. This book needs more love!

[Amy (literatiloves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a brilliant book! I’m not typically a fan of short story collections, I usually want more explanation than they give me but I didn’t feel that way with this one at all. If you like kind of weird, dark, melancholy writing, you’ll want to read this. Some stories were only a page and some were pages long and those were the ones I tended to connect to more but there wasn’t a bad one in the bunch. It is rare that I re-read a book but I am looking forward to reading this one again and catching anything I missed on the first reading. I’m writing this review a while after reading it, and I still find myself thinking about some of the stories and the feelings they evoked in me. I loved it!

[Rosalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant compilation written by an observant creative wordsmith.
O'Callaghan's book is a mixture of brief vignettes, that may give the reader a taste of an idea or a glimpse of a passing view, and fleshed out stories that expose the reader to diverse peoples' lives some of which are full of hidden horrors, some untold mysteries and sometimes sad, sad happenstances.

[Rene Hooft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always said that I’m not a short story person. Turns out all I needed were good short stories? I read this collection in two sittings, the stories (although linked in theme) are all so different and interesting. Amanda has a really interesting way of revealing information and letting you guess for a while in her stories. I will say that some of the shorter stories went over my head a bit but the ones I enjoyed (which were most) made up for it.

[Pollyana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another uni read.

Although well constructed and very good unifying tone, the genre of the stories wasn’t always for me. My favourite story was probably “Things.”

[Michael Livingston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inventive and nicely written shorts. Probably not something that will stay with me for ages, but a solid holiday read.

[Sally Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb short story collection from an exciting and assured new voice. Every sentence is measured and nuanced, observing characters and their lives from a slant. Loved it.

[Bec · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The water was almost black, and it looked thick, as if you could catch it up and hold it in your hand like a curiosity"

[Rebecca Bowyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Taste For Silence is a stunning collection of stories about silences. From comfortable ones to sinister ones, we’re reminded that among the constant noise it’s the silences that sometimes carry the most meaning.

I used to actively avoid short story collections. I credit Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Foreign Soil with steering me back towards the genre. They’re wonderful to dip in and out of when you’re not in the mood to commit to a 300-page narrative.

Amanda O’Callaghan’s collection is beautifully written. It flips from England to Australia and back again with each story but the theme is always the same. The unspoken, the unseen, the gaps between what we say and what we don’t.

I loved that the main characters of these stories are often older women, a demographic that is too often missing from literature. Unless to make a brief appearance as a crone or somebody’s disapproving grandmother.

The stories vary from just a single page to a couple of dozen pages. My favourite was “A Widow’s Snow”, the story of an older widow who finds herself unexpectedly lonely and decides to let a man in to fill the silence of her life. The joy of the writing is in the small things. These are the opening lines:

Roger, Maureen decided, is the kind of man who would appreciate an old-fashioned pudding. She flicked through the best of her recipe books, toyed with ideas like spiced apple tart with a rich pastry crust – Gerald’s favourite, so not really an option – and all manner of sponges, even soufflés.

O’Callaghan manages to convey so much with so little. We eventually find out that Roger is the man she has invited round to dinner. Gerald is her dead husband.

Lying in wait in many of the stories are darker secrets hiding in everyday scenarios. It’s a wonderful, literary read.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cheryl bookclub 2020 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This Taste For Silence
Well wow, just wow. This amazing writer has unleashed a spare, fully loaded scare of short stories on an unsuspecting public. Bravo, this collection is the real deal, authentic, razor sharp observant and utterly fearless in delving right into the furthest corners of the things we do not, cannot say.
First of all. Why aren’t short stories more popular? You would have thought they would suit our attention of a gnat modern existence to a tee, we can spend 5 minutes before bed feverishly turning the pages before oblivion (or restlessness) happily ticking the box marked literature for the day.

Well these short stories are absolute corkers. And for all the unsaid weightiness, O’ Callaghan’s characters have a remarkable amount to say about what we do and don’t say when we are faced with what makes us uncomfortable.

The opener is A Widow’s Snow and it’s one of my favourites. The widow (drawn back into safe society by the promise of re marriage) is experimenting with the local antiques dealer. This tentative trying on speaks volumes, hints but not complete understanding. Is she lonely? Is this a way back into the comfortable coupledom of polite society? Is she curious? In need of compliments?
Oc holds back the whole meal, and it turns out we didn’t need it anyway, the slice and dice she gives us is filling aplenty.
“Rare, Maureen...”. “Now, Maureen “, “Oh, Maureen “ was there ever a phrase more grating? Run for the hills Maureen! It’s all there, this small minded wear of attrition, as Roger grows ever larger, Maureen grows smaller, colder, questioning her taste in decoration, the longevity of her marriage, the questions she hasn’t asked, the fact that she has not spoken much about herself in the end.
And then, like a small lead balloon, the claim, his little test and grand mark of his utter smug confidence.
Masterful doesn’t really cover the writing, it’s sparse and spare and pithy and sits like a needle caught under your nail during a rare bout of sewing.

There are other gems. The News bears reading twice to let the full weight sink in. Things explores what a backbone looks like when judgment calls. Legacy is a little Agatha Christie. The Golden Hour is deliciously Hitchcock. The Memory Bones clinically Australian. The Painting, left till last, feels like it should land the heaviest blow and is spooky enough if a little constructed.
The delights for me were the tales that slid sideways into your consciousness, that linger way past breakfast.
Well done Ms OC - you are one to watch
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story collections are rarely recognised in literary fiction awards, but Amanda O’Callaghan’s debut collection, This taste for silence, was shortlisted for the 2019 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. The judges described it as “inventive in its themes and by an author unafraid to enfold her readers into unsettling reading experiences”. I would agree. This taste for silence is full of unusual turns that force us to see an issue or event from a different – and often unsettling – angle.

For my complete review of this excellent collection of stories, please check out my blog: https://whisperinggums.com/2019/12/19...

[Dominic]

More short stories. Considering how I have written in this journal previously about my struggles with reading this style of literature I seem to continually find myself back here. This reading was not by choice but through a university course. That is an important distinction as being 'forced' to read a form you normally wouldn't stinks of bias. With this bias acknowledged up front I will stat that I was not a fan of this book.

While the book has its moments/stories as a whole there is a lack of gripping narratives throughout. The author aims for a very moody feel to this anthology, made clear by her choice of title THIS TASTE FOR SILENCE. That titles alludes to nothing but a slow, moody burn wit the use of the word "silence". This chosen mood was not the issue that I had as it works in some of the stories, primarily "A Widows Snow". At other times the mood plays with continuously building a narrative either to not pay it off in any sense or leave it with a weak ending. The prime example of this being "The Painting".

Both these stories book end the collection and work like a spectrum of what is in between them.

[Karen Kao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m in a brilliant indie bookshop in St. Kilda’s, Melbourne casting about for something to read. More specifically, I’m looking for short fiction to balance out my last long read. The author needs to be an Australian and I’d prefer a female writer.

So I study the handwritten staff recommendations. One of them is particularly enthusiastic about Amanda O’Callaghan, an author whose name I’ve never heard. I pick up her debut short story collection This Taste of Silence and scan the opening lines.

Roger, Maureen decided, is the kind of man who would appreciate an old-fashioned pudding.

Then I see the back flap. It tells me that O’Callaghan is a former advertising executive. Writing stories is her second act just as mine is. She’s my kind of writer so I take her book home.


To read the full review, please visit my website for Wicked.

[Julia Tulloh Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

👏🏽 FIVE 👏🏽 STARS 👏🏽
I enjoyed this collection of short stories SO MUCH. As the title implies, these stories and flash fiction pieces are all about silences, secrets, the undisclosed and moments of disclosure. It sounds vague but it isn’t - the pieces work really together despite a seemingly abstract central theme, and make for an unsettling book where each story has its own moment of reveal (usually a slightly disturbing one) - which consistently surprised me. I reckon there were only a couple of stories which I found not quite as strong as the rest (though they were still very strong). The spare and incredibly precise writing style was a joy to read (even though the content could not be described as joyful)! I will reread this and can not wait for what O’Callaghan brings us next.

[Lee McKerracher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of 21 short stories from Amanda O'Callaghan.

Amanda is a very visual and descriptive writer with her stories conjuring up so many vivid images. Each story, some only one page in length, will take you on a journey, often emotional. The way she uses language is delightful including phrases like "He savoured the idea of Mikey alone like a lozenge in his mouth" and "He thought of the scratch of Walter's fountain pen, the erratic slips in the ink, evident even then. Tiny lightning bolts of ruin".

Every word is carefully used, there is no superfluous verbage here. Each story is so thoughtfully crafted, each character cleverly developed.

Really enjoyed reading and taking in this author's craft.

[Nell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful batch of short stories by an Aussie writer. Highly poetic and metaphoric even, straddling the line of never quite telling you the issue but giving you enough that you just know what it is that has been written about. I feel like it's the never actually saying specifically what the answer is every time, that's what makes these so unsettling.

[Morgan Miller-Portales · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘This Taste of Silence’ is Brisbane-based author Amanda O’Callaghan’s first collection of short stories and what a debut. Interweaving excerpts of flash fiction with longer pieces, O’Callaghan unveils a dark netherworld of loneliness and eerily unexpected moments in short and compelling prose. A must-read for all those amongst us interested in the intricacies of the human condition.

[Jennifer Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of short stories, all with a grim undertone, an undertone of things not mentioned, a taste for silence. Amanda has a way with words, simple, understated but you can read so much into the story, the things she just hints at. Short stories have never been my thing but I am getting into them much more and this collection have supported my decision, well worth a read.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, emotional, intriguing, thought-provoking, devastating; I can't think of one singular one word to sum up the reading journey of 'This Taste For Silence', so there's just a few. Living in Brisbane, I'm ashamed to admit I've read virtually no Brisbane-based authors until now - which was a foolhardy mistake. O'Callaghan's clever and concise writing draws you in instantly, and keeps you gripped with every new set of characters and story.

My personal favourite stories were: The Painting, Things, Legacy and New Skins. Even trying to pick my favourites, I kept coming up with more, until my list was essentially the whole book. Despite its often-dark subject matter, I adored this entire collection, and I'm eager to see what O'Callaghan does next.

[Susanne (Pages of Crime) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short stories. They are quite understated but are all the more powerful for it. I thought that I would prefer the shorter flash fiction stories over the longer ones but it is the other way around, the longer ones were so well developed they really stand out. I will certainly be reading any future work published by Amanda O'Callaghan.

[Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me just say….If depression were a book, my gosh, it would be this one.

The short stories are much like a little graveyard full of unhappiness, loneliness and misery.

While the writing is beautifully done and can be appreciated, there is not one pinch of joy or slice of happiness to be found. It makes reading a real chore, hence my lack of stars given.

[Anna Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for school

Absolutely fantastic, every story was beautifully written and such good examples of the magic of short stories and short prose. Only tiny moments in time, but expressed in such detail and characterised so well. A dream to read and an inspiration to write!