The Silent Symphony

The Silent Symphony

From Chapter 4

As he slid the carriage back into place, a loud snort escaped from his roommate. He hesitated. Silence – broken at an instant by the smash of glass and a muffled curse from their rowdy neighbor. ‘I know how you feel,’ said Cas under his breath.

He glowered at the words. They were the wrong words. Hollow. Plain. Meaningless. He gingerly cranked out the page, turned it over, and replaced it. He placed his fingers on the keyboard and stared at the cliché. He removed his hands and placed them behind his head. With a yawn, he proclaimed, ‘This has to work.’

As if in answer a sound dropped from the room above. The musical note seesawed down to him like a blossom falling from a tree. Another note followed. As if in answer to his frustrated penitence, the silence drew back slightly. Penetrating the gloom, more musical notes fell from the room above. Piano keys were struck with the pitter-patter of rain, stirring, and beautiful. Like a strong drink, this put courage in our writer’s belly. A torrent of sound was let loose as the piano player showered mana onto him. Music, glorious and rousing.

Fingers rushed to find the keys in the dark.

Order Now!
About the Book

An exciting debut novel with mild surreal elements in the style of David Mitchell meets the foreboding oppression of 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. Mix it all together and add a modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and you have The Silent Symphony.

Cassius Wortham leaves all he knows behind to make it as a writer in the City, a nameless, walled metropolis at the crossroads of the world. But things are not as they seem. His roommate might have mob connections, his artist friend has addiction issues, and the waitress at the poetry club has political aspirations. Not to mention the invisible spirit of history that follows them around waiting to chronicle a looming catastrophe. An overseas turmoil brings tides of refugees to the walls of the City. Ambitious leaders play at social engineering. The loudest voices are drowned in the growing silence. Only Cas, his friends and their ghostly tagalong hold the key to the future, for in the end the Silent will decide the fate of the City. Listen…and you too may hear the instruments of the Silent Symphony.

Can you find all the secrets? Can you find the truth? Do you know why the City fell?

Details
Author:
Series: Symphony Universe, Book 1
Genres: Dystopian, Literary
Tag: Recommended Books
Publisher: Amazon
Publication Year: 2021
Format: Paperback, Hardcover, eBook
Length: Novel
ASIN: B0924L8KRT
ISBN: 9798537351627
Endorsements
Unique political fiction books like ‘The Silent Symphony’ are hard to find nowadays. Written by Marcel du Plessis, The Silent Symphony is an intriguing and well-written story that highlights the hidden functioning of a metropolis and that some choices and acts may have significant consequences on the majority. The tale is about Cassius Wortham, a man who abandons everything to flourish as a novelist inside an unnamed, fortified metropolis near the center of the globe. However, a lot is happening in the dark, and nothing is what appears! Marcel did a remarkable job in writing The Silent Symphony because it is not just a story; instead inspires us to understand our society and everything we should do to improve it. Highly Recommended!
Steeped in improbable (and impossible) greatness, The Silent Symphony is a powerfully penned allegory, a shimmering image of a dystopia just close enough for readers to understand. A multi-layered plot of dark secrets, victories over death through eternal words, and enigmatic players like the ill-fated Wild Child and the traumatized Refugee, this novel is stacked with symbolism, but any heavy-handedness is muted by brilliant language and a poetic, experimental style. In The City, a sprawling metropolis, a bastion of modernity, there are still ancient powers at work, both within human nature and outside of our conception. The balance of the known and the mysterious will clash. Cas and his friends are at the swirling center of an inevitable collapse, but even when the prose veers into the tangential and experimental, the plot isn't lost, merely diverted in a new direction. The novel reads a bit like a piece of classical music, inconceivable to fully understand upon a first read, but there is a special quality that will draw you back, and deeper. The narration bounces seamlessly from abstract and grandiose to visceral and interpersonal, reminding readers that even the largest cities, nations and species are ultimately composed of wildly unique and unpredictable individuals. In that there is hope, but as this novel shows, there is also most certainly something to learn. Nearly masterful.
"A philosophical, surreal, and irresistible dive into a Nameless City, The Silent Symphony by Marcel M du Plessis is a mind-expanding narrative too weird to be ignored and too wise to be untrue. A series of cryptic characters choose "fatal acts of desperation" and every shrugging misstep is shadowed by the pervading sense that no one and nothing is what it seems, unraveling itself with Kafkaesque levels of psychological symbolism. Cas, Warrick, and Kat form the novel's magnetic core of artists, dreamers, writers, and wild ones, taking readers on a cerebral journey through a bizarre and eerily silent world, for a wholly original and exhilarating work of visionary dystopian fiction." ★★★★½
Order Now
Buy from GoodReads
Buy from Amazon
About the Author
Marcel M du Plessis

Marcel du Plessis has stories in his veins. He has been writing since math class 2006 and has been bad at counting ever since. Characters, plots, metaphors, and secrets are the things he is best at. He has written about language, poetry, prose and more. Taught English to non-English speakers. Did a thing on Social Media Marketing. Best of all, he writes stories.

The Silent Symphony took up more than six years of his life. It has been written, re-written, and changed several times. It incorporates Marcel’s love for secrets, complex characters, political machinations, and Greek Mythology.

Marcel likes to make you laugh almost as much as he likes to make you cry. He sincerely hopes that this story made you feel something. If one did, he would like to know. Mention him on Twitter (@CalliopeWriter) or ask him a question on Goodreads.

Preview
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."