If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things is a 2002 novel by British novelist and short story writer Jon McGregor. Set entirely on a single city block, its plot orbits around an unnamed tragedy that is only referred to indirectly. Through the tragedy’s impact on the area’s neighbors, the reader is compelled to assemble his or her own image of what happened. Further, once the details are made known, the darker sides of the lives of all of the neighborhood’s characters are suddenly illuminated as well. The novel’s narrative construction reflects its central premise that reality is constructed communally and is thus susceptible to distortion and manipulation. Published when McGregor was only 26 years old, the novel was long-listed for the Booker Prize, one of the highest honors of British literature; this made him the youngest person to ever come close to winning the prize.

The novel is narrated from two points of view: first, through a woman who witnessed the central tragedy; and second, from the quasi-omniscient perspective of the neighborhood itself. The neighborhood does not have a stable or unified identity or voice; rather, it emerges and recedes unexpectedly, often suspending vital information or background to convey the uncertainty that the neighborhood’s denizens feel. The story highlights many moments in the tragic day that seem ordinary, almost banal: in the morning, college students amble home drunk and high from clubs; parents drink tea while their children go outside to play. An elderly couple leaves home to celebrate an anniversary. Other vignettes are more specific and curious; for example, one man with hands described as scarred almost beyond recognition patiently listens to his daughter recall a spiritual vision. None of these people can know what is about to happen to their community. The neighborhood imbues these small narratives with a sense of foreboding, generating suspense in its audience.

At one point in the day, the atmosphere shifts into a terrible darkness. Like an avalanche, the tragedy affects even those who are oblivious to what happened. The neighborhood explains that a young woman, referred to simply as The Girl, has returned home from Scotland, where she had a one-night stand and got pregnant. The Girl never thought of the young man again. Later, she receives a visit from a man named Michael who reveals that his twin brother, who lives on the same city block as The Girl, is in love with her. What Michael doesn’t tell her is that the brother recently died of a heart attack. Meanwhile, Michael convinces The Girl to tell her mother about her pregnancy.

The neighborhood abruptly reveals that The Girl’s life is not the only tragic one. The elderly man off to his anniversary dinner with his wife is hiding the fact that he is terminally ill and has no idea whom he can speak openly to about it. The man with mutilated hands witnesses a boy fatally struck by a car, which is revealed as the tragedy at the center of the novel. The boy’s mother, in a state of shock, watches her son’s body while muttering his name. The man tries to repeat the boy’s name, “Shahid Mohammed,” in his honor, but his voice is canceled out by the sound of traffic. The man with mutilated hands realizes, then, that the world does not unite for anyone’s individual cause, or to lament any injustice or death.

On one hand, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things reveals that human life and connection are fragile and tenuous. The neighbors only understand and like each other on a superficial level. On the other hand, it validates the range of human desire, emotion, and sorrow, and the endlessly deep and complex histories behind even the most ordinary-seeming events. McGregor suggests that no narrative can be reduced to simplicity without forfeiting its depth.