Hush

If nine-year-old Gittel tells anyone what she has seen, not only will she be deemed unfit for marriage, but so will her siblings. In her contemporary Borough Park, New York Chasidic community, the prohibition against lashon hara (gossiping or speaking negatively about someone) is so ironclad that abuse goes unreported and Gittel lives with years of torment and regret. Even the author of Hush has found it necessary to write under a pseudonym.