Painter of Silence

Painter of Silence, Georgina Harding's third novel, recently shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, is set in Romania in the early fifties and tells the story of Augustin, a deaf and mute man found frail and very ill on the steps of a hospital by Safta, a nurse. The dreamy tale explores their relationship within the backdrop of a world devastated by the Second World War and the arrival of Stalinism. We visit the author at her farm in Stour Valley, Essex to find out about the inspirations behind the book and her special relationship with Romania.