How should I sound?
How should I look?
When it’s my turn to speak, I go quiet.

UK Edition, Canongate Books

Hardback / £12.99 9781786897404

Ebook / £10.39 9781786897411

Available at all fine UK bookstores and these online retailers:

I Go Quiet is the story of an introverted girl, hiding in silence in a world that seems overpowering and hostile. In the power of imagination and the pages of books, she sees possibilities for herself and discovers a place where her words ring loud and true.

David Ouimet’s exquisite debut translates the interior world of an anxious child into intricate paintings that convey how it feels to be lonely, isolated, and scrutinized— and how it feels to break free and soar. I Go Quiet will resonate with anyone who has struggled to find their voice.

‘Stunning…I would have found the book a frightening companion when I was younger. A necessarily scary friend. I would have opened the pages very carefully, as if terrified that there would be a different illustration there that expressed how I felt with even more honesty, but how it would have spoken to me. In a protective world scared of triggering and micro-aggression, David Ouimet understands that to comfort means to strengthen, not to coddle. I want to send it back in time to my seven year old self.’

-Stephen Fry

‘Beautiful and engaging, this book brought tears of joy to my eyes. It sums up my own journey, all the dreams and hopes I never dared speak out loud when I was younger. I was left filled with happiness and I have no doubt that this book will inspire those, who discover its magic, to embrace and nurture their own voice in this noisy world’

– Coralie Bickford-Smith

 ‘I Go Quiet is an astonishingly beautiful book: Beautifully written, beautifully paced and told, beautifully drawn and painted. But what lingers and takes you back to reread and marvel is the truth beneath the beauty. We all go quiet, even the noisy ones. I wish this book had been around when I was a small child: I would not have felt quite as alone.’

-Neil Gaiman

‘I Go Quiet is poetical, magical and eerily creepy. It is bewildering and mysterious and a master at somehow finding the words to capture something so abstract – isolation, loneliness, solitude and sadness. But the book is not bleak – it offers light and shade, it is full of hope and comfort. It will become a solid silent friend to many readers.’

-Laura Dockrill

‘Completely original. Unique, in fact’

-Philip Pullman

‘A powerful book, about the intensity that can live behind silence; about the power of books and how they give us strength and knowledge to deal with the world in which we find ourselves. A wonder.’

-Matt Haig

‘I Go Quiet unfolds like a vivid and indelible dream, full of light and darkness and mystery. It is about hidden things, hidden feelings, and the power of quiet reflection. Most of all it is about connection and finding our place in the world. The illustrations are a marvel of imagination, atmosphere, and cinematic loveliness".

-Eric Fan, of the Fan Brothers

‘I Go Quiet is not a children's book but rather an experience for all ages. A visual journey, rich and moving in search of a response. The book offers a gateway to a better understanding of the challenging universe of silence. But it also offers a way out…a must read.’

-Sonia Braga

‘This is the kind of book the child I was would have stared at for days on end.’

-Dave Eggers