It seems Zoe's thought that 'she could die in that place, and happily,' is to be put to the test, for when we come to with her, she is alone, upside down, and trapped under tonnes of hard-packed powder. The snow crashes down on us as it does Jake and Zoe, tearing the terrified young lovers from one another and us, momentarily, from them.

The couple have little time to prepare for its calamitous embrace - nor, indeed, do we (readers, meet the deep end). Because this - the tranquility, the silence, the undisturbed powder and the eerie feeling of proximity to an eagle's flight - was what it was all about.' In a fit of unadulterated pleasure, Jake whoops at the mountain, and the mountain roars back, a 'great mass of smoke and snow' on its breath: a n avalanche. At the crack of dawn on the second day of their return trip, Jake and Zoe get 'up early to beat the holiday-making hordes for this first run of the morning. For them, it was love at first snow, a holiday romance that outlasted the holiday, but not the romance for fate, however, their meeting was but the first link in a great chain which, a decade later, leads the young couple back to the Alps - and into the arms of calamity. Joyce has written a mysteri-ous masterpiece, a tour de force that will thrill fans of Peter Straub and the hit television show Lost.Years ago, Jake and Zoe met on the piste of a ski resort. 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. 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.

And as the couple begins to witness unset-tling events neither can ignore, they are forced to con-front a frightening truth about the silent land they now inhabit. They are trapped by the storm, completely isolated, with another catastrophic avalanche threatening to bury them alive.again.

An evacuation as sudden and thorough as this leaves Jake and Zoe to face a terrifying situation alone. Their hotel is devoid of another living soul. 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.

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.

The Silent Land by Graham Joyce