Stepping Out Of The Silence

He has built his life around silence.

She has filled hers with noise.

Neither is prepared for what happens when their two worlds collide.

Elliot Van Doren has spent two years keeping the world at arm’s length.

Since losing his parents, he has built a carefully controlled life around work, routine and solitude. His flat is quiet. His days are predictable. His emotions remain safely behind a locked door.

Then Val Newman moves in across the hall.

Bright, sociable and impulsive, Val is everything Elliot isn’t. Her laughter, parties and endless stream of friends drive him to distraction. But beneath the sequins and noise is a woman quietly struggling with rejection, uncertainty and the growing fear that the life she once dreamed of may never happen.

They irritate each other.

They challenge each other.

And slowly, unexpectedly, they begin to see what lies beneath the surface.

As Val starts questioning the life she has been chasing and Elliot is forced to confront the grief he has spent years avoiding, an unlikely friendship begins to change them both. For the first time, Elliot begins to wonder whether a life lived safely is really a life at all. And Val must decide whether she is brave enough to stop performing the person everyone expects her to be.

But healing is not simple. Neither of them can move forward without facing the things they have spent so long running from.

Sometimes the person who disrupts your carefully ordered life is the person who shows you how to live it.

Stepping Out Of The Silence is a heartfelt, slow-burn story of grief, healing, friendship and unexpected love. A story about two people learning that letting someone in can be terrifying, transformative, and sometimes the beginning of finding your way back to yourself.

Publisher - Mara Mansour

Language - English

Perfect Bound

Contributors

By author

Mara Mansour

Published Date - 2026-09-19

ISBN - 9781806455966

Dimensions - 21.6 x 13.8 x 1.8 cm

Page Count - 326