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    The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel
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    The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel
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    The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel

    Written by Elizabeth L. Silver

    Narrated by Rebecca Lowman and Amanda Carlin

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An unforgettable and unpredictable debut novel of guilt, punishment, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive

    Noa P. Singleton never spoke a word in her own defense throughout a brief trial that ended with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder. Ten years later, having accepted her fate, she sits on death row in a maximum-security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date.

    Seemingly out of the blue, she is visited by Marlene Dixon, a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the mother of the woman Noa was imprisoned for killing. Marlene tells Noa that she has changed her mind about the death penalty and Noa's sentence, and will do everything in her considerable power to convince the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison, in return for the one thing Noa is unwilling to trade: her story.

    Marlene desperately wants Noa to reveal the events that led to her daughter's death - events that Noa has never shared with a soul. With death looming, Marlene believes that Noa may finally give her the answers she needs, though Noa is far from convinced that Marlene deserves the salvation she alone can deliver. Inextricably linked by murder but with very different goals, Noa and Marlene wrestle with the sentences life itself can impose while they confront the best and worst of what makes us human in this haunting tale of love, anguish, and deception.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 11, 2013
    ISBN9780804120845
    Unavailable
    The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Execution of Noa P. Singleton

    3.5/5

    173 ratings40 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Very compelling book that's hard to put down, but ultimately a little unsatisfying.
    • 2/5
      This book has been the subject of countless laudatory reviews and was, until the longlist was announced, a constant on the lists on various sites of possible contenders for the National Book Award. And I can't figure out why this over-written novel of thin characters has come in for so much praise. Sure, it's got the young woman on death row thing which, to be honest, made me want to read it over more worthy books set in less exotic locations. Here's the premise; Noa P. Singleton is sitting in prison, waiting for her execution date, having exhausted her appeals when the mother of the woman she shot appears and offers to help with her final plea for clemency. The rest of the book looks back on the events leading up to the crime, explaining Noa's motivation and the events that led her to kill another person. I know, right? I was on board from the start and ready for something that I wouldn't be able to put down. Then, over the course of the first chapter I noticed that the author had chosen to give Noa an overblown style of expression, with no noun or verb left undecorated and with a wide assortment of metaphors and similes called into use. Often Noa made no sense, but I chalked it up to the author choosing to write Noa's words like she were competing for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize. Then Elizabeth L. Silver added a series of letters written by the mother of the dead woman and used the same unreadable style and I was forced to acknowledge that the poor writing wasn't a conscious choice, but actual poor writing. His moans lubricated the phone lines like a sexually transmitted disease.Waves of perspiration dripped over my fingers.He had eyelids like meat patties, slight flaps of creamy skin folded over his lids like a blanket tucking his pupils in.Dark black hair hung over those phosphorescent eyes, while her Greek knob of a nose poked through the waterfall of curls.These are not occasional flights into sloppy writing (dark black? Really? As opposed to light black? And what about those STDs to make a woman wet?) but a constant barrage of randomly constructed descriptions. And despite the first person narration, I knew as little about the main character on the final page as I had on the first. Sure, there's the Big Reveal at the end to explain some of her actions, but it was too little, too late.
    • 1/5
      This book was overly long. Did not enjoy any of the characters. A waste of time.
    • 1/5
      A rating of two stars is probably one star too many.I really wanted to like this book, because I believe in supporting debut novels. So I'm giving this book two stars because I'm sure Silver was really, really trying. But I'm at 268/308, and I honestly don't care how the book ends. Silver's writing is stunningly bad, completely distracting from everything else she's trying to do. At this point in the book I can only laugh out loud at her tortured metaphors. On just about every page are sentences that sound like candidates for the Bulwer-Lytton contest."I do sit alone, sometimes, wondering whether the clouds are gathering together, communing like a collection of cotton balls in a tightly sealed ziplock bag, or whether they've been flattened out like a stack of pancakes. Or if they've been vaccinated with a syringe of rainy dye so that only a select few darken into grays, blacks, and charcoals." OMG."Madison McCall tried unsuccessfully to throw out my interrogation, but only after an intestinal road of paperwork throwing around words like Miranda and police misconduct." What does this sentence even mean?"My bladder was full, my eyes were leaking, my pores were leaking, but none of them could move." Huh?"His heart was too visible outside his garments, where it resided like lint on a week-old sweater." No comment required.Almost worse than her writing is the fact that she can thank "the team at Crown" for all their help, including her "fiercely kind" editor Christine Kopprasch (this book had an editor!?) and the rest of them for their "creative and inventive marketing and publicity." Yeah, thanks loads for suckering me into buying this thing, including AMAZON who made this an Amazon Best Book of the Month for June. Wow, June must be one terrible month for book publishing.Understand that I'm not simply mocking or having fun at the expense of a debut novel. I respect this woman's effort. What insults me is the aggressive professional marketing this thing has received. The quotations from the "editorial reviews" at Amazon are simply over-the-top. Call me naïve, which I pretty much get called by someone at least once a day, but this kind of marketing is dishonest and wrong, and it disrespects readers who buy these books IN GOOD FAITH with hard-earned $$ (not to mention spending our hard-earned reading time as well).P.S. I finished the book, and, true to form, Ms. Silver never stopped with the metaphors. My favorite one at the end is the gun resting on the table, "almost like a scared puppy during a thunderstorm. . . my gun by congenital defect. . . ." And no, I have no idea what that means. And yes, a rating of two stars is one too many, so I'm bumping it down to one star.
    • 2/5
      This is a page turner with unexpected revelations doled out in the latter half, but it left me dissatisfied. None of the characters, however interesting, achieved clarity in their own minds nor did they understand each other. There were no winners in this book, not even the reader.
    • 4/5
      Book received by and review written for BloggingForBooks.org.

      Exquisitely written and beautifully told, this book was a delightful surprise. Noa is no common criminal; that much is clear from the beginning. As her story unfolds, her life turns out to be both tragic and inspiring. Not often would I feel compassion and sympathy for a self-confessed killer, but it is impossible not to like Noa and root for her clemency.

      The strong and vividly penned characters in this novel are excruciatingly real. Marlene loves her daughter with a smothering love that many only children will recognize and understand. Caleb feels the regret of a wasted life, resulting in him manufacturing the one he wants...until it seems that he will get it; then he panics. Oliver is wide-eyed with youthful hope and the pure taste of justice. Even Patsmith is fully drawn in my mind, as she walks her own green mile.

      Far from predictable, the suspense in what actually happened to Persephone, Caleb, and Sarah is gripping until the end. Silver presents her non-linear story so deftly and seamlessly that is both easy to follow and allows the story to be constructed from inside-out, and numerous angles. The use of letters from Marlene to Sarah is brilliant in presenting a very complex, flawed yet sympathetic character.

      Another word about the writing. Silver acknowledges the intelligence, humor and conflicted nature of her reader. The writing is thoughtful and sensitive, as well as non-confrontational about the very sensitive subject of capital punishment. It is also witty and wry, adding a bit of levity at just the right times.

      Impossible to put down and indelible in its mark, this is a must-read for the summer! I hope Silver has many, many more novels in her future. My personal library will boast them all.
    • 5/5
      The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver
      5 Stars

      This book grabbed me right from the beginning. The story starts out by introducing us to Noa P. Singleton, a young woman in prison due to be executed in six months. One day, the mother of her victim, Philadelphia lawyer Marlene Dixon, shows up at the prison to tell Noa that she has formed an organization called MAD (Mothers Against Death) and no longer believes in the death penalty. She wants to use the resources of her firm to appeal to the governor for clemency on Noa's behalf. What she wants in exchange is for Noa to tell her why she killed her daughter. Apparently during the trial Noa never gave her lawyers any explanation and refused to testify on her own behalf.

      The story is told from Noa's perspective and I love the way the author slowly extracts the story over the course of the book. The story is dispassionately narrated by Noa and she weaves her way through her life and how she ended up on death row. That part of the story is interspersed with visits from Oliver Stanstet, a young lawyer preparing the clemency paperwork. The other part of the story are letters Marlene has written to her daughter, giving us a window into the mother's actions and feelings without changing the focus of the story.

      Noa's character is extremely well done. While I was reading I could never be sure she was the victim of circumstance or an evil killer who deserved to be on death row. The plot is interesting and well developed, with both the murder and Noa's approaching execution date running in parallel. I'm still thinking about it days after I have finished it. It was one of the best books I've read all year.
    • 2/5
      The premise of this book was really interesting. I was intrigued by the narrator's status as a death row inmate, and was prepared for a good story that intertwined mystery and maybe some psychology. What I got was a story I didn't quite understand, characters I didn't particularly like, and motivations that didn't make sense. Don't get me wrong -- I don't NEED to like the characters necessarily in order to like a book. I felt, though, that the author WANTED us to identify with Noa, and while the reader did learn throughout the course of the novel WHY Noa did what she did, I can't say the motivations really stood up for me. In all, I found it strange, with characters acting in ways I did not feel real people would act in life. The characters didn't feel fully developed...throughout the novel, it is reiterated how smart Noa is, how she excelled in so many ways--while also discussing how terrible her childhood and her parents were. But these were all just kind of stated, without the reader feeling like there was much investment in this character or her life. It ended up being a let down all around, even though it had so much potential.
    • 4/5
      Elizabeth Silver's debut novel opens with the introduction of Noa P. Singleton waiting on death row in a Pennsylvania prison, six months prior to her scheduled execution. Ten years after her original trial and with little hope of an appeal, Noa has accepted her fate when she is unexpectedly visited by powerful lawyer Marlene Dixon. With a sudden change of heart, Marlene, the mother of Noa's victim, has decided to work toward a clemency petition. As Noa's execution date nears, she attempts to piece together her past to figure out who her changing circumstances will benefit and if she truly deserves forgiveness.

      As I started reading The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, I was quickly distracted by the flowery style of Silver's writing. With strings of mismatched words, often interrupted by afterthoughts in parentheses, I felt more like Noa was writing a college admissions letter than introducing readers to her story. However, as Noa begins to detail her past, she takes on a lighter, more narrative tone that is easier to digest.

      Silver is quite adept at leading readers down unexpected paths and into unforeseen moral dilemmas. What I thought might be a simple examination of the American criminal justice system was actually a novel that kept me guessing to the very end. The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is a well researched, smart look at the perils of capital punishment with just enough suspense to keep readers on edge.
    • 5/5
      I found this, for me, to be the best read of the year so far. There are so many sides to it; so-much-so that when I was asked the old question "So, what's it about? I found it difficult to explain the story in one easy-to-understand sentence or indeed paragraph for that matter and, in the end I just had to urge the person to go get a copy and read it. They asked me, "but why?" I said just do it you'll like it you won't regret it. Obviously writing a review I could say a whole lot more but just like - Noa P. Singleton - I too struggle with choosing the right and fitting words to use and so, just like my friend I say to you the reader of this little review - "just go and get yourself a copy. Read it and then see if you can describe the story to someone else in one easy sentence."
    • 4/5
      Complex and inventive. Makes you see the wisdom on not assuming or judging until you know the story.
    • 4/5
      The audio was compelling---very effective readers. The twists and turns in the story of what really happened was what kept me listening and although there are lots of hints along the way, the "answer(s)" are kept hidden right to the end.
    • 4/5
      Great book, great writing. Keeps you guessing until the end.
    • 4/5
      Intriguing story. It had twists that make you think about crimes and who is at fault. I am a bit perplexed by some of the twists so I am glad that we will be discussing this one in book club next week!
    • 4/5
      Just about the best I've ever read about complete and total alienation caused by a string of the worst possible luck. There is much to admire about the protagonist Noa, a young woman who's on Death Row for a seemingly motiveless murder. The writing is also crisp and goes very deep into the psyche of this poor woman.Strong portrayals of her mother, father, attorney, friends, boyfriends, and the demonness on her tail make this a completely satisfying tale, albeit not your ideal beach read. It's an object lesson in taking more care.
    • 4/5
      An interesting story of a woman on death row for killing a pregnant woman; a murder she admits committing upfront. All her appeals exhausted and facing only months until her execution, she receives an interesting proposal for a clemency fight from the mother of the woman she killed... but, of course, the mother has had an agenda all along. I enjoyed the storytelling, the slow peeling of the onion, but the main -- and kind of big -- problem with the book is that there are no likable characters.
    • 3/5
      Noa P. Singleton is in her late twenties, intelligent (although she chose to drop out of college), attractive, sharp tongued, sometimes tender, sometimes bitter and sitting on death row. She is quite resigned to the fact that she is going to be executed because she did, after all, commit the crime. Unexpectedly, the victim’s mother, a high powered lawyer, brings a colleague to visit Noa with the news that they are going to file for clemency in the hopes of having Noa’s sentence transferred to life in prison. Noa’s story is told in turns through Noa’s diary, her conversations with her attorney and letters written by the victim’s mother to her dead daughter. Noa’s story is a sad one of a life filled with making the wrong choice at a crucial moment in time.

      Overall this was a pretty good book. My problem is that the timing of my reading of this book was horrible. I had recently read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and although one is historical fiction and one is pure fiction the books are very similar in subject matter. I may have thought more highly of Ms. Silver’s book, but in the shadow of Burial Rites it unfortunately ranks as a poor contender. I certainly do not want to dissuade anyone from picking up this book, I only wish I had read the two books in reverse order or had a little more time between the two.
    • 4/5
      An excellent read, I could not put it down.
    • 3/5
      This book gives you a lot of food for thought. It is about a 35 year old woman on death row. Ther are many twists and turns in this book so it keeps you wasting to read.
    • 3/5
      Noa P. Singleton is 35 years old, has spent ten years incarcerated for murder and is 6 months away from being executed. When yet another young lawyer expresses interest in keeping her alive, Noa is skeptical. But this lawyer has been sent by the mother of Noa's victim. Marlene Dixon testified against Noa ten years ago, insisting on both her guilt and the most severe punishment for her crime, but now states that she's had a change of mind and wants to help Noa try for clemency. But Marlene also wants the truth about what happened the night her daughter died. Told from Noa's perspective, layers of the past are gradually revealed and the reader finds out a few unsavory details about all the people involved. Author Elizabeth L. Silver succeeds in keeping the story moving. The characters have shades of good and bad but are difficult to like. Marlene's letters to her deceased daughter provide a glimpse into her state of mind but, ultimately, Marlene's motivations remain a mystery and Silver employs the annoying tactic of uncompleted sentences throughout the resolution to excuse the characters from explaining themselves, leaving the reader hanging. A fast-paced read that fizzles to a close.
    • 3/5
      Confusing at times, hard to see which character was the worst. The story was filled with hateful, hurtful people. I was sometimes questioning if what I read was really what was going on, or if the characters were lying. Could have been much better.
    • 4/5
      The Execution Of Noah P. SingletonbyElizabeth L.SilverMy "in a nutshell" summary...Noah is about to be executed. This book is about her life...the life that led up to her impending death.My thoughts after reading this book...This is such an unusual book for me to choose to read. Noa doesn't seem to care much about the fact that she has been on death row for years and then just months before her execution...Marlene...the mother of the woman she was convicted of murdering...approaches her with a plan to save her from being executed. So...she ends up with this bitter woman and a British attorney who seem to be trying to save her life. Most of the book is about Noa's life...her mother, her absent father, her friends...her life. It's sad...it's bizarre...it's enlightening. What I loved about this book...This was such a sad book. I read and respected its sadness. Noa had a sad strange life and at times she seemed to be emotionless. I was surprised by an event in her childhood. I think you will be, too. She seemed mostly alone in this world...sort of stiff and cold and alone.What I did not love...It's incredibly easy to strongly dislike Noa. It was also incredibly easy to strongly dislike Marlene. Noa seemed off...she seemed to lack some basic human values...and she seemed incredibly harsh and cold.Final thoughts...This was an interesting book to read. It was different...but it absolutely captured and kept my attention.
    • 3/5
      Spoilers ahead....A page-turner for sure, but a frustrating one. Noa's disinterest in her own life is incredibly frustrating, but by the end of the book I realized it was because she was punishing herself for an accident when she was a child. It doesn't make any of her actions against Sarah acceptable, but her lack of interest in her trial makes sense.Despite Noa's somewhat borderline personality traits, Marlene is the more twisted character. She's disgusting and definitely has some part in her daughter's death despite what she thinks. She blackmailed people and withheld information many times thought this tale. An interesting read, but I found myself skipping a few lengthy paragraphs that seemed unnecessary.
    • 5/5
      Strong writing supports an unusual and difficult story.
    • 2/5
      I'm sorry I spent the time on this one. I finished it, but I don't know why.
    • 3/5
      The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver is definitely a page turner and one I was unable to set down. I truly enjoyed this book and suggest others read it as well.
    • 3/5
      I was disappointed in this book. The story line was very promising and somewhat successful. But it got lost in all the over-writing.
    • 4/5
      I won an advanced copy of The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver in a Read-It-Forward Give-A-Way and from Netgalley.com. My review contains my honest thoughts and opinions.I am surprised that The Execution of Noa P. Singleton received such mixed reviews. I thought it was a riveting and thought-provoking story. I certainly would recommend it as a book club selection because there were issues regarding innocence, accountability and the death penalty that would lead to a worthwhile discussion, but I found the novel to be a fascinating read on its own, no discussion necessary.The book was not a happy one. When the novel opened, Noa was already on death row awaiting execution. She did nothing to help with her defense. Her appeals have been denied. Noa's chances at life were slim to none. The mother of the victim, Marlene, a successful attorney, apparently had a change of heart regarding death as a form of justice and punishment and approached Noa about filing a clemency petition on behalf of M.A.D., Mothers Against Death, an organization recently formed by Marlene. Marlene was a dark, controlling character and her intentions were much more sinister than portrayed; it was her attempt to discover the truth of what happened the night her daughter was killed, without any real objective of saving Noa's life. Though Marlene denied it, her actions played a substantial role in her daughter's death.Those were the basic facts of the story, but there was much more to it. Noa was a good person who was lost from the start. She had a self-absorbed mother, an absent father, and lacked guidance from any responsible role model. In fact, Noa, as a child, was forced to act like the adult. Yet, despite her circumstances, Noa was Salutatorian of her high school graduating class, though the achievement wasn't of much importance to her; Noa also attended the University of Pennsylvania, albeit it was for only one year. Clearly, She was trying to break the destructive pattern that she was born into, and at least for awhile, she was succeeding, even if she did hold herself at a distance. But quite quickly, her life started to unravel and without any real support system, plummeted. Family and life disappointed Noa time and time again, and the skewered self-preservation tools that she had to work with added to the unfortunate choices that Noa made for herself and for others.The only negatives I have about the book are that I wish that Noa could have had a happier life. She was a decent young woman, doing the best she could. Her spiraling descent took a toll after awhile. Additionally, it did not make sense to me that Noa was permitted to wear a diamond bracelet in prison. Aren't a prisoner's personal belongings confiscated upon entering a correctional facility? Further, although realistic, I hoped for a more satisfying ending.
    • 3/5
      I sat on a jury once. It was a murder trial in which a man was accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend. Both had been drinking extensively and engaged in a domestic dispute. He killed his girlfriend, beating her with his hands and feet and a hand held vacuum cleaner. I found the entire criminal court process . . . interesting. I had worked in a courtroom for years, but only in the juvenile dependency court. So, the criminal case was a new experience for me. The information that could be entered into evidence, the way the attorneys made their arguments, the instructions to the jury . . . I came away from that experience feeling a bit disillusioned and not too confident in the entire jury trial process. At least not in the case I heard. It's hard to be when no one cares about the juror sleeping off a hangover during testimony or the jury foreman who asked his fellow jurors to keep in mind the defendant's age when condemning him to prison time despite having just been instructed by the judge not to take that into consideration because it wasn't relevant to whether he had in fact committed first degree murder.And so Noa P. Singleton's story was not surprising. I have worked with a variety of attorneys over the years--some inexperienced, others burnt out or apathetic. They were mixed in with the good ones. One of my favorite juvenile court attorneys was a court appointed one, not a private attorney brought in from the outside. So the stereotype of court appointed attorneys not being the best advocates for their clients isn't always true. That's neither here nor there. In terms of the book, however, what most stood out for me was Noa's experience with the court process and how, unfortunately, realistic it was portrayed. It's clear from the novel that the author is well versed in criminal law and the ins and outs of the courtroom, particularly in criminal cases involving someone without much money.I was caught up in Noa's tale right from the start. The novel is told from her perspective, in first person with the occasional pause for letters written by Marlene Dixon to her daughter, the murder victim. The two narratives offer a glimpse into both Noa's mind and Marlene's. Their stories are intertwined right from the start. Their relationship is an interesting one, one that creates more suspicion at first rather than understanding.The author has a gift for only offering a piece of the mystery of how and why Sarah was killed here and there, keeping the suspense building and the reader wanting to know more. Neither Noa or Marlene are particularly likeable characters. Neither are very reliable as narratives--or are they? It's a question that I kept asking myself as I continued to read.I never really connected with Noa. Being isolated on death row had given her a lot of time to reflect on her life and the direction it had taken. We learn about her childhood and her relationship with her parents, particularly her absent father who suddenly reappears in her life. She hadn't had an easy life, and I could see how her behavior and attitudes led her to make the decisions she did. Still, I never quite got a handle on her. She seemed disconnected from her own life and the people in it. Was this a reflection of her current situation and isolation or was it really a part of who she was? Marlene brought in her own complications. She said she had a change of heart about the death penalty, but Noa suspected an ulterior motive from the start--and as the reader, I did too. It was in the way Marlene presented herself and the words that came out of her mouth. I just didn't trust her. Truth be told, I trusted Noa more.I admit going into the novel I expected a rather fast read, but I didn't find it to be so. Elizabeth L. Silver is a descriptive writer. Whether that was a part of Noa's character or just Silver's style, I am not sure. Add to that the fact that the reader spends so much time in Noa's head, philosophizing and analyzing things, it slowed the pacing of the book down. At times I didn't mind at all as I found it interesting, but other times I wished I could hurry the book along. I really wanted to get to the truth. What happened to Sarah? Why was she killed? What was Noa's role? And what about the motive? All of this remains a mystery until the end of the book. And, although by then the truth comes less as a surprise, there are still some surprises to be had.When I finished reading The Execution of Noa P. Singleton, I wasn't immediately sure what I thought of the book. On the one hand, I did enjoy it. On the other, I felt a bit unsatisfied. Ultimately though, I am glad I read the novel and feel that, as a whole, it was a worthwhile book, one that is particularly thought provoking. Review copy provided by publisher.
    • 4/5
      Keep an eye out for Elizabeth L. Silver. This is her first book and it has appeal on so many levels its hard to pin down to a specific genre. Mystery, social commentary, literary fiction, overall just a really good story and really good writing. What bumped this up from a good debut to really something is the fact that it made me think of my own position on the death penalty and death row. Cruel and unusual? Eye for an Eye? I don't know the answer, but I am thinking about it. I found myself highlighting many passages and reflecting on the characters Silver creates while still being entertained with the author's mystery and wit. Now we wait for number two...