Paul Theroux

Biography

Paul Theroux’s novels include The Vanishing Point (Mariner/Harper Collins, 2025), from which “The Silent Woman” is excerpted; Burma Sahib (Mariner/Harper Collins, 2024); and The Bad Angel Brothers (Mariner/Harper Collins, 2022). His travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) and On the Plain of Snakes (Houghton Mifflin, 2019). Theroux is the recipient of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel and the American Academy of Arts and Letters award for literature.

See Work

FICTION / Winter 2024

The Silent Woman

By Paul Theroux ,  Illustration by Richard A. Chance

After a wretched, wakeful night, my hot head buzzing with annoyance, I sat squirming in my study waiting for Ollie to arrive. At nine he put his head in, smiling with his usual greeting, “How are we doing, Andy?”

I said (as I’d rehearsed...

The Silent Woman
FICTION / Spring 2010

Minor Watt

By Paul Theroux