Haunting, mysterious and often shocking, Hush is the story of what happens when we find we cannot speak, even to those we love most. Lily Emmett has suffered from selective mutism since childhood and still struggles to see the value of everyday speech. Her sister, Connie, has always spoken for her, and her partner, Richard, has learnt to translate her movements so that they share a unique form of communication. But when the two sisters return to their childhood home after their mother's death, the visit inspires memories of the event that first rendered Lily silent, and still haunts them both. The resulting search for the truth about what happened takes them back to a childhood shaped by bullying and familial breakdown, and unearths the secrets that lie at the heart of the sisters' relationship.

Sara Marshall-Ball spent her formative years in Cambridge. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Derby before moving to Brighton in 2007. She worked as a proofreader of gravestones to support herself through her MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Sussex, during which she wrote much of her debut novel Hush. The novel was shortlisted for Myriad's Writer's Retreat Competition in 2012. Sara Marshall-Ball currently works as an insurance claims assessor.