Things I Cannot Say

Journalist and disability rights ally Geraldine Mellet brings us a wry, clever and ultimately uplifting novel about a young woman, newly paralysed and voiceless, who must find a way to save the day. Thirty-seven-year-old Tracey Read is trapped. A globetrotting engineer, as adept at fixing failing projects as she is at avoiding commitment, a recent accident has left her with quadriplegia and a question mark over whether she'll ever speak again. But that's not the worst part. Warehoused in an aged care facility she calls The Last Resort, for the first time ever Tracey can't just get up and go. Not unless she can channel her former self and invent an escape plan. Forced to interact with others who live and work there, Tracey overcomes her own prejudices to find pockets of kindness and community and with each small moment of independence she claws back, the more she begins to recognise herself. But as her analytical brain comes back online, Tracey notices something much darker going on at The Last Resort. When her rising suspicions are ignored by the people who have the power to act, it's up to her to find the truth. Can Tracey, underestimated and forgotten, expose the wrongdoing happening behind closed doors? And if she does, will she become the engine of her own story again or put everything at risk? 'Mellet manages an amazing feat - a feisty character that has the reader simultaneously feeling shaken, punching the air, furious at the system and wryly smiling at the dark humour. A poignant story about what it is to be human - without shying away from the difficult stuff yet ultimately full of hope.' ANNE BUIST, co-author of The Glass House