All the Truth That’s in Me

This sombre story is set in Roswell Station in the early days of America, though the exact date remains unstated. Judith Finch was a teenage girl. Ezra Whiting abducted her and took her to a remote cabin in the woods. Two years later, when everyone assumes Ezra and Judith are both dead, she returns to Roswell Station. But to ensure her silence Ezra has cut out her tongue.

Shortly after her return, marauders known as the Homelanders invade. Against her will Judith fetches Ezra back to join in the battle, during which he does actually die. Judith’s brother Darrell also suffers disabling wounds in the fighting.

Ezra’s death and the defeat of the Homelanders might have promised a better life for Judith. But it was not to be. She is ostracised by her family and everyone else because she is assumed to have had a sexual relationship with Ezra and to be damaged goods. On top of all this, she is mute. To add to her problems, she still cares for her erstwhile friend Lucas, the son of Ezra Whiting.

The book now reaches a pivotal stage. How will Judith manage her new life? And will she find the courage to tell Lucas, whom she now loves, some very unwelcome truths about his father, truths which will change and maybe destroy their relationship?

It would have been easy for Judith, Lucas and Darrell to become little more than two-dimensional fictional characters present only to witness the dramatic events going on around them. With exemplary skill Berry avoids this trap. All the characters in her story are invested with enormous credibility. Describing someone who doesn’t speak can be a novelist’s worst nightmare. The protagonist is robbed of the gift of dialogue – and so is the writer. But Berry’s aphasic character tells her story in the first person, and tells it with unforgettable clarity and power. The struggle that Judith endures learning to approximate the sounds of speech is hauntingly described.

This book is a monument to human courage in adversity. Anyone who wishes to understand the emotional strain attached to social isolation and the struggle against the odds to communicate should read this outstanding novel.