Michaelides's knowledge of Greek mythology and past experience working in a psychiatric unit allow him to write with confidence, in his debut novel, about the story of Alcestis and the delicate nature of treating patients. He gives her painting materials, thinking perhaps she can communicate through art, if not words. Theo knows there's a reason Alicia named her painting after the Greek myth about a woman who offers to die in place of her husband, but how does it pertain to Alicia's situation, when she's alive and her husband is the one who died? Why did she kill Gabriel when, according to her old diary entries that appear throughout the novel, he was the love of her life?Īgainst his colleagues' advice, Theo pushes to reduce the dosage of Alicia's medication to increase her lucidity. lue veins visible beneath translucent skin, fresh scars on both her wrists. In the painting, Alicia depicts herself 'in the days after the murder, standing before an easel and a canvas, holding a paintbrush. He believes he can break through to her and get her to speak-and that clues to unlocking her secrets lie within her self-portrait, a painting titled Alcestis. He lands a position at the Grove, the secure psychiatric facility in North London where Alicia was admitted after her murder trial, and volunteers to treat her.

Now forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber wants to change that. Alicia had deep knife cuts on her wrists and had lost a significant amount of blood, but she survived and hasn’t spoken a word since the night of the murder. Alicia's fingerprints were the only ones on the gun. And most of his face missing, from multiple bullet wounds. Shortly before midnight one evening six years earlier, police arrived at the Berensons' home to find Alicia blood-splattered, with a gun on the floor and Gabriel tied to a chair. They were both artists-Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer.' 'Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband.

The intricately plotted story, inspired by Greek mythology, is akin to a siren song, enticing, but with an ominous undertone and hints of deception.

Alex Michaelides's The Silent Patient lures readers in with a tantalizing premise: a woman has murdered her husband in cold blood, and then refuses to say why.

Alcestis the silent patient