The Rest Is Silence

A novel about the misguided choices we make as individuals and as a collective.

Norogachi, Chihuahua. Furious claws of fire light up the night sky and consume the Church of Our Lady of Pilar. As townspeople rush in vain with buckets of water to try to put out the blaze and everyone wonders what happened, the only sound in the mountains is the howling of Lobo Montejo, a former priest who gave up the cassock to raise a family and live in community. The fire has destroyed the last bastion of peace and signals, once and for all, that evil intends to settle everywhere. The advance of drug trafficking has disrupted the natural order in the sierra—but when Lobo decides to fight back, he unleashes an insatiable fury. How far are we willing to go in order to restore good?

Set in the heart of the Tarahumara mountains, The Rest Is Silence is a novel about the flawed decisions we make as individuals and as a society. In this striking debut, Camila Villegas exposes the impact of crime and inequality at the core of a Rarámuri community—a whirlwind of violence that has spread across an entire country.