The Things We Cannot Say

01The Heavy Silence of the Present

Motherhood often feels like a balancing act on a tightrope, but for Alice, the rope is fraying, and she is carrying the weight of the world without a safety net. We step into the modern-day timeline of this story by meeting Alice, a woman whose life is a symphony of scheduled chaos. She is driven by a fierce, consuming love for her family, yet she is shadowed by an exhausting sense of isolation. If you have ever felt like you were screaming into a void while everyone around you carried on with their normal lives, you will instantly understand Alice’s daily reality. Alice lives in Winter Park, Florida, with her husband Wade, her gifted daughter Pascha, and her son Eddie, who is on the autism spectrum. Eddie is a brilliant, beautiful boy, but his severe struggles with verbal communication mean that Alice’s days are dictated by his needs, his routines, and his sudden, overwhelming meltdowns. Alice has essentially put her own life, her career, and her marriage on the back burner to become Eddie’s full-time advocate and protector. Wade, her husband, copes with the stress of their family dynamic by retreating into his demanding job. He provides financially, but emotionally, he is a ghost in his own home. This leaves Alice feeling deeply alone, shouldering the emotional labor of raising a neurodivergent child while her marriage slowly crumbles into a state of polite, distant cohabitation. The only true anchor in Alice’s turbulent life is her beloved grandmother, whom she affectionately calls Babcia. Babcia has always been Alice’s safe harbor—a woman of immense strength, quiet wisdom, and unconditional love. But tragedy strikes when Babcia suffers a severe stroke. The stroke leaves her physically incapacitated and, most devastatingly, unable to speak. For a woman who has survived decades of history and built a family from the ground up, this sudden silence is a cruel imprisonment. As Alice sits by Babcia’s hospital bed, watching the vibrant matriarch of her family trapped in her own mind, she makes a pivotal decision. She introduces Babcia to the same Augmentative and Alternative Communication AAC app on an iPad that she uses to help Eddie communicate. This moment is one of the most brilliant and emotional parallels in the entire book. Here is why this connection is so powerful: The Bridge of Technology: The very tool that helps a young boy with autism navigate the modern world becomes the key to unlocking the buried secrets of a World War II survivor. The Shared Burden of Silence: Both Eddie and Babcia have rich, complex internal worlds, but they are trapped by their inability to verbalize their thoughts. Alice becomes the translator for both of them, standing between multiple generations of silence. The Power of Being Heard: When Babcia first realizes she can use the app to communicate, the relief and urgency in her eyes are palpable. It is a visceral reminder of how much we take the simple act of speaking for granted. Through the iPad, Babcia begins to spell out a desperate, fragmented message. She doesn't ask for comfort or medical updates. Instead, she types a name that Alice has never heard before: Tomasz. She follows it with the name of a town in Poland: Trzebinia. Finally, she makes a plea that will turn Alice’s already fragile world upside down. Babcia asks Alice to travel to Poland, to find the people she left behind, and to locate a hidden box. This request is the catalyst for the entire journey, pulling Alice out of her comfortable, albeit chaotic, bubble and thrusting her into the dark, unresolved history of her family's past.