Time of Silence

Time of Silence is a 1962 novel by the Spanish writer Luis Martín-Santos. An English translation by George Leeson was published by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1964. A new translation by Peter Bush was published by New York Review Books in 2025.

Plot

The novel is about the medical student Pedro, who studies cancer in mice, and his interactions with people in Madrid. An assistant wants to sell the mice illegally. Pedro's lower-class landlady tries to marry off her granddaughter. Pedro has an intellectual friend who achieves very little. Pedro becomes ensnared in a deadly drama when he performs an abortion on a girl who ends up dead. The girl's boyfriend then murders Pedro's fiancee.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the novel suffers from too much intellectualism, but that the depiction of Madrid gives it "a degree of power".

Adaptation

The novel was the basis for the 1986 film Tiempo de Silencio.