A dramatic family saga, Unspoken is a tale of secrets, love, betrayal and revenge.
Unspoken means something that cannot be uttered aloud. Unspoken is the dark secret a woman must keep, for life.
Alice is fast approaching her one hundredth birthday and she is dying. Her strange, graphic dreams of ghostly figures trying to pull her into a tunnel of blinding light are becoming more and more vivid and terrifying. Alice knows she only has a short time left and is desperate to unburden herself of a dark secret, one she has lived with for eighty years.
Jessica, a journalist, is her great granddaughter and a mirror image of a young Alice. They share dreadful luck in the types of men that come into their lives.
Alice decides to share her terrible secret with Jessica and sends her to the attic to retrieve a set of handwritten notebooks detailing her young life during the late 1930s. Following the death of her invalid mother and her father’s decline into depression and alcoholism, she is forced, at 18 to take over control of the farm. On her birthday, she meets Frank, a man with a drink problem and a violent temper.
When Frank’s abusive behaviour steps up a level. Alice seeks solace in the arms of her smooth, ‘gangster lawyer’ Godfrey, and when Frank discovers her in another man’s arms, he vows to get revenge.
Unspoken. A tale that spans two eras and binds two women, born eighty years apart.
Unspoken is available in Kindle format at both Amazon UK and Amazon Com.
The UK version is linked below.
The paperback version will follow soon.
Here is a super review from Beverley Ann Hopper to share with you all.
Jessica Griffiths and husband Calvin, a narcissist, everything is always about him, nothing was his fault, but she did love him.
Nana Alice nearly a hundred years old living in her farm house and Jess always visits to check on her, Calvin though it was time she kicked the bucket.
Nana has a story to tell Jessica, that she has never told a soul before, so when Calvin agrees to her going a lot more than she should, this could be her next novel.
This book is such a breath of fresh air to read, starting back in 1919, so Nana begins, and what a story it is. Jessica is eager to listen. I found this a sharp and witty book to read, with indeed lots of funny shocking and sad moments, such a mixture of Nana Alice life that even shocks Jessica.
This book is totally not what I expected to read but I am so glad I did. The author has done himself proud with his work, and I now look forward to reading more.
I LOVED IT ALL. A beautiful story to be told.
Another great review, this time from Debbie Taylor
This is a brilliant book. I was hooked from the first page and couldn't wait to finish it. The characters are wonderful, you really feel that you know them and the whole book has an intriguing and heartwarming appeal, you feel as if you are part of the story and soon feel that you are there with the characters living each day with them.
I cannot wait to read what happens to Jessica next.
Thank you so much for a fabulous read.
A super review from Mary Burns
Dear Reader,
I waited with baited breath for this novel by Trevor Belshaw to appear. Boy was it worth the waiting if you like family sagas.
He has got what life was like for women back in the thirties to a tee. Then how he managed to blend the thirties story in with life in the present day was terrific.
I know I loved picking this story back up every day and I am sure you dear reader will too.
Janice Rosser Review
Trevor Belshaw is a new author to me and I have just finished reading his latest novel, Unspoken. I read the book in two evenings. It is a riveting family saga spanning three generations. The main character Alice (Nana) has a story she feels must be told before she approaches her soon to be, 100th birthday. The novel is set in the 1930’s for Alice and in the present day for Jess. The chapters are short and Trevor’s style of writing is flowing and full of description.
Her great granddaughter Jess reminds Alice so much of herself that Jess is the one she will share her secret with.
Alice is left at age 18 to run the family farm after the death of her mother and her father who cannot cope with his wife’s loss and becomes a very unhappy man unable to cope with life.
Raped by Frank, a much older man on her 18th birthday, Alice realises she is pregnant and therefore she and Frank pretend to get married and live together on the farm. Frank is abusive, a drunk and a thoroughly awful character. Once Martha is born, his behaviour goes from bad to worse and Alice befriends a solicitor who gives her comfort.
Jess is married to two timing Calvin, another man of abusive behaviour and unpredictable character. Can Jess leave him or is she stuck as Alice was all these years ago?
Through a series of hand written notebooks, Alice is able to tell her story to Jess and what a story it is.
I can thoroughly recommend this author and I look forward to hopefully a sequel? 5 stars.
