Silver: A Novel

Silver revisits Paulette and Howard, a couple from In the Flesh, as their marriage faces dissolution. After twenty-five years together, Paulette has decided to leave Howard, finding the prospect of continuing their life together suffocating. Though they were once happy, Howard has long resented her for becoming pregnant early in their relationship, which he views as trapping him into marriage and ending his youth. Both have been unfaithful, and past betrayals remain unhealed wounds between them. Paulette's plans to leave are interrupted when Howard suffers a sudden heart attack. His fragile health forces her to confront a difficult question: whose survival matters more—his physical life or her own need for a fresh start? Can she abandon him while he is vulnerable, or must she set aside her determination for a new beginning? The novel explores the tension between old bonds and the desire to move forward.