“What an achievement! Don’t Say a Word! is evocative, smart, AND funny, with fresh insights about families on virtually every page. Marcus’s drive to comprehend her past will inspire readers who felt silenced in childhood or whose talents and achievements went unappreciated. With this book, she breaks her silence, revealing hard-won realizations and a remarkable ability to laugh through the tears.”
—Barbara Schildkraut, MD, author of Unmasking Psychological Symptoms and Masquerading Symptoms

“How well do we know our parents? Elizabeth Marcus confronts this question in her vibrant memoir, which follows the final decade of her parents’ lives as they seem to age into inversions of their former controlled and controlling selves. Reflecting on their absurd new friendships and terrible real estate deals, which she describes in hilarious detail, Marcus arrives at a dramatically new view of her difficult parents and their relationship with her. Funny, compassionate, and beautifully written, Don’t Say a Word is a moving account of a daughter finding her own story.”
—Gail Pool, author of Lost Among the Baining: Adventure, Marriage, and Other Fieldwork

“Marcus is a gifted storyteller, and her memoir is a page-turner. It is written in a way that evokes every emotion imaginable in the scenes recorded. Hers is a beautifully written tale that is likely true of many children observing their parents advance in age. Marcus’ writing is fresh, comical, revealing, poignant. It hits you in the heart from all conceivable angles.”
—Story Circle Network