The idea for The Quiet Tenant came to me a few years ago, in early 2020. I was living in a house with my husband’s family in upstate New York. I was grateful to be there, given the exigencies of our world at the time, but also struck by the disruption we were experiencing. After years of having our routines dictated by our respective commutes and jobs, suddenly, we were spending a lot of time together without reprieve.
This got me thinking: what if someone had a dark secret they had been able to keep from their family because they never saw them during the day? And what if, suddenly, they were no longer apart, and the secret they were keeping risked being exposed?
