The Listeners

One night, while lying in bed next to her husband, Claire Devon suddenly hears a low hum. This innocuous sound, which no one else in the house can hear, has no obvious source or medical cause, but it begins to upset the balance of Claire's life. When she discovers that one of her students can also hearthehum,thetwo strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship.Finding themselves increasingly isolated from their families and colleagues, they fall in witha disparate group of people who also perceivethesound. What starts out as a kind of neighbourhood self-help group gradually transforms into something much more extreme, with far-reaching, devastating consequences.

The Listenersis an electrifying novel that treads the thresholds offaith, conspiracy and mania. Compelling and exhilarating, it forces us to consider how strongly we hold on to what we perceive, and the way different views can tear a family apart. (From HarperCollins)

The Listenerswas onthe 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist.

Scotiabank Giller Prize jury citation:"The Listenersis at once a revery for the sublime, for the innocuous tapestry of sounds that make up the rhythms of our lives and the pollution of sounds that can tear and devour. It is at once a masterful interrogation of the body, as well as the desperate violence that undergirds our lives in the era of social media, conspiracies, isolation, and environmental degradation. Tannahill writes as both poet and playwright, millennial and philosopher, as one who trains his reader to attune to the frequency of 'the Hum' to experience a rich hinterland beyond our embodied senses, beyond our perceptions of grace or faith. I leave listening, even to the silences, which are always screaming, and posit myself in my cochlea, forever now a conch, flaring and reeling, primordially."

The Listenersis at once a revery for the sublime, for the innocuous tapestry of sounds that make up the rhythms of our lives and the pollution of sounds that can tear and devour.- 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury

Jordan Tannahill is a playwright, filmmaker, author and theatre director.He has twicewon theGovernor General's Literary Award for drama: in 2014 forAge of Minorityand in 2018 forBotticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom. He is also the author of the novelLiminal.

• 26 Canadian books to read for Pride Month
• The best Canadian fiction of 2021
• Jordan Tannahill on why queer writing is universal, and so is the Bible
• How his mother's cancer diagnosis inspired playwright Jordan Tannahill to turn to fiction
• 29 Canadian books we can't wait to read in August
• Read an excerpt fromThe Listeners
• Jordan Tannahill's latest novelThe Listenerstraces one woman's destructive journey in search for truth
• Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Jordan Tannahill's novel The Listeners turns up the volume on faith talk
• 34 great Canadian books to check out in fall 2021

Why Jordan Tannahill wrote The Listeners

"It really began with me initially reading about the hum in Windsor and then kind of beginning to extrapolate from there. I imagined a character of a mother and a wife named Claire Devon, who's a teacher and who begins to hear the hum and her family can't hear this hum. Her colleagues at work can't. Her friends can't. How incredibly isolating this is for her.

"And I began thinking very much of this idea of the hysterical subject, this very gendered figure throughout history. A woman's symptoms and ailments have often been disregarded and dismissed as psychosomatic or hysterical or what have you.

I began thinking very much of this idea of the hysterical subject, this very gendered figure throughout history.- Jordan Tannahill

"I think the idea of this person reminded me a little bit of Julianne Moore in Todd Haynes'sSafe, who has this inexplicable illness or ailment which burdens her incredibly, but who, despite the good intentions of her family, is not believed.

"I think that was the departure point for this story and how that ostracizes her from her life and drives her into a more extreme trajectory where she's seeking the comfort and companionship of initially a student of hers, who can also hear the hum, and then ultimately strangers. So that's where, for me, it began."

Read more in his interview with CBC Books.

From the book

Other books by Jordan Tannahill

The 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist