The Quiet That Followed

<p>In present-day Belfast a ward nurse rebuilding trust and a once-burned photographer fall in love by practicing consent out loud. Their small ritual-Green / Amber / Red / Between-and three jars (LINES / LUCK / NOTHING HAPPENED) begin as private shorthand and grow into a neighbourhood practice: benches named STAY and LISTEN a sapling called BE a market whose ordinary kindness resists spectacle.<br>When a draft council policy threatens hostile changes to public space and an ad agency dangles a lucrative campaign that would turn their ethic into vibes the couple and their neighbours answer with evidence-repair logs jar letters and the steadiness of care. The book chooses wide shots over faces dignity over drama and the quiet labour of keeping what's good.<br>The Quiet That Followed is upmarket literary fiction for readers of Claire Keegan and Caleb Azumah Nelson-intimate civic and deeply human. It's a love story that refuses the machine that turns lives into content asking instead: what if ordinary is radical when tended?<br> </p>