Idra Novey: Silence Is Complicity

I first met Idra Novey nearly three years ago, when she visited my MFA class to discuss her debut novel, Ways To Disappear. Over the course of two and a half hours, the celebrated translator, poet, and then-new fiction writer discussed the challenges of beginning to write fiction; writing while also translating other works; and the particulars of the art of translation: how it taught her to value not only other languages, but the nuances of other cultures. Her sharp intellect, genuine warmth, and probing mind make her a superb conversationalist and teacher. I (and my class) was wholly smitten with both her and her thrilling novel.

Novey’s two works of fiction are thrilling indeed—they toe the lines of mystery, thriller, crime, and political caper, and each contain surprise elements (untranslated dialogue in Ways To Disappear, meta-fiction in Those Who Knew) that make them delicious to lovers of more intricate, yet fast-paced and engaging fiction. There is always more than meets the eye to Novey’s writing. Her latest book and second of fiction, Those Who Knew, feels particularly relevant now. Set on an unnamed island ten years after the collapse of an oppressive regime, supported by an also unnamed, but powerful and highly recognizable northern country, it follows several characters embroiled in the murder of a young political activist on the island.  The implications of silence are a focus: Who gets silenced, and how complicity in silence can be its own form of violence. Power imbalances are laid out, and those responsible for them taken to task; Novey makes it clear just how much the unnamed, great northern nation has to atone for. In a time when America feels particularly problematic, and when women have continued the tradition of stepping up to call out injustices, Those Who Knew shines as a book firmly of the moment, with indelible lessons to be learned about the consequences of actions large and small–ours and those we witness.

Novey’s global perspective is informed by her studies in Brazil and experience teaching in Chile for several years; she also translates in Portuguese and Spanish. Lately,