Plot: The silent patient by Alex Michaelides

8월에도 원서 1권 읽기를 성공했고, 정말 행복하게 읽은 책을 소개해보려고 합니다. 올해 8월에 읽은 책은 Alex Michaelides의 The silent patient입니다. 이 책을 읽고 작가한테 반했고, 앞으로 스릴러(서스펜스)를 한 번 읽어봐야겠다 라는 생각을 하게 되었습니다. 문장이 간결하고, 어렵지 않은데 게다가 스토리도 탄탄하고 개연성도 잘 짜여져 있어서 정말 재밌게 푹 빠져 읽었던 책입니다. 이 책은 긴 말 필요 없이 무조건 강추 하는 소설입니다. Alex Michaelides작가의 처녀작이라고 하는데 어떻게 이렇게 글을 잘 쓸 수 있나 감탄하며 책을 읽었습니다. 이 소설 또한 오디오북과 함께 읽기를 추천 드립니다. 나래이터는 Jack Hawkins, Louise Brealey인데 두 성우 모두 정말 매력적인 영국발음의 영국성우입니다. 이 책은 간직하고 싶은 문장도 많고, 앞서 언급했듯이 스토리도 재밌고 올해 읽은 소설 중 top 3안에 드는 책입니다. Top3라고 했지만 3책이 모두 우열을 가리기 힘들어서 거의 올해 가장 재밌게 읽은 책이라고 생각될 만큼 정말 잘 쓰여진 책입니다. 아래에는 제가 완독 후 줄거리 요약을 하며 모르거나 암기하고 싶거나 줄거리 요약에 필요한 단어를 이용한 영작이 있습니다. 마지막으로 이 책을 꼭 읽어보시길 강추!!

 

Rating: 5.0/5.0 

 

August's book: the silent patient by Alex Michaelides

The silent patient is a psychological thriller fiction. Theo Faber, a psychotherapist, and Alicia Berenson, a painter, are the protagonists.

Theo had been a victim of domestic abuse in his early days, and it led to his keeping a distance from a social world while he was in college. Counseling service with Ruth, Theo's psychotherapist, rescued him from the painful memories from his abusive father and the following consequences: suicidal impulses. This drew him to psychotherapy. However, he stopped the therapy when he was seeing Kathy. He was married to her afterward, who had an affair with Gabriel, a fashion photographer, and Alicia's Husband.

Alicia Berenson is the silent patient. Her subsequent silence, even in the trial, proved to be profound psychological distress from the death of her husband and she spared a lengthy prison sentence accordingly. And she was admitted to Grove, a secure forensic unit. Her psychological wounds in her childhood: her mom got killed in a car accident and her father committed suicide, hanged.

Theo had been around Alicia because he did something bad to her. He applied for a position of forensic psychotherapist at Grove working at another unit because he had to. Dating back to the days he learned Kathy's affair with Gabriel, Theo followed him and watched his house and wife. His feelings of betrayal drove him to break into the house and tied her first and Gabriel a few hours after he got home. Alicia kept begging him to save her husband not knowing about the affair, and he committed the crime. He threatened them telling either of them would be killed and made her husband choose one. And she continued begging him for the same. He pushed him to make the decision counting 10 to 1, and Gabriel said he didn't want to die. And Theo told the truth about her husband cheating on her, which provoked Alicia to murder her husband.

Alicia knew Theo had fear that she knew what he did back then and was doing to her at Grove. He tried to kill her by injecting a massive dose of morphine, but she survived. Her journal revealed his guilt and he got arrested.