The Weight of Silence

The Weight of Silence (2009), a mystery and suspense novel by Heather Gudenkauf, concerns two families living in Iowa who wake up to the disappearance of their daughters one summer morning. The first daughter, Calli Clark, is partially mute from a traumatic event she experienced as a toddler; the second, Petra Gregory, is Calli’s friend and voice. The families have different fears about what happened to their children informed by their own past experiences. While Calli’s mother, Antonia, believes that her disgruntled husband might have abducted them, Petra’s father, Martin, believes that they have been taken by a malicious criminal. In searching for the two girls, the parents discover revelations and buried family secrets.

The novel begins one night in the Clark house. Seven-year-old Calli needs to use the bathroom but is afraid to walk downstairs and run into her father, Griff, who abuses alcohol. Knowing that he will depart on a fishing trip with his friend in the morning, Calli hopes to avoid him before then. After she decides she can’t hold it anymore, she descends the stairs, immediately encountering her father in a drunken state. He stops her and tells her that she is not his daughter, but rather the daughter of her mother’s childhood lover. Griff skips his camping trip, instead forcing Calli to go with him through a wooded area to the home of the man he accuses of being her father.



Early that same morning, Martin and Fielda, Petra’s parents, notice that Petra has disappeared. They alert the police, who start an investigation. They all nervously recall a similar disappearance the year before, in which a young girl was abducted from home and found dead several days later. The town’s sheriff calls for extra help, and an interrogation team comes to talk to the families. They begin to look for clues and field questions from the press.

Meanwhile, Calli is still with Griff, who has grown even more violent and unhinged. Calli escapes deeper into the woods, finding an area where she has never been before. At the same time, her brother, Ben, starts to look for her. As the day grows close to nightfall, Calli runs into Petra, who seems in even worse shape than her. Badly beaten, Petra is nearly unconscious. Griff finds them both shortly after and tries to convince Calli to come home alone with him. Ben runs into the group and immediately assumes Griff is responsible for Petra’s injuries. He tells the mostly mute Calli to run for help. When she arrives at the edge of the woods, she is only able to utter the word “Ben,” making him the primary suspect.

Calli is sent to the hospital with Antonia. Martin joins the deputy sheriff to rescue Petra, and they clamber to the top of a bluff, where a medical helicopter lifts her to a hospital in the city. They take Ben down the mountain with them, Griff having disappeared. Martin realizes what happened and turns around to find and kill Griff, while Ben continues to the hospital with Fielda.



Calli’s mother stops at their house to get some clothes and toys for Calli to have in the hospital. Sensing something unusual, she goes to the border of the woods, where Griff suddenly emerges, pulling her in. They fight each other as the police pull up to the house. Griff pulls out a gun, motivating the police to shoot him in self-defense, killing him.

Back at the hospital, Calli tells the police and her family what she saw in the woods, which Petra couldn’t express. The man hurting Petra was a student that her family was friends with. The student is arrested for assault.

Finally, the novel shifts to Petra and Calli’s lives six years later. Both of them are now thirteen, and their lives are relatively stable. Calli is a well-adjusted teenager who excels in school and plays on sports teams. Petra is less well adjusted, still suffering from the traumatic event and an accompanying speech disorder. However, her family is thankful she is alive. After the Gregorys move to a new town, the two girls still remain friends.



Gudenkauf’s novel illuminates different ways in which one can enable or enact silence. Whether by dismissing pervasive physical and emotional abuse or by withholding information due to a trauma that suppresses speech, every act of silence threatens to distort or erase the truth. The protagonists in The Weight of Silence ultimately overcome the power of silence to restore the balance of justice in their domestic lives.