The burden of silence passes from old to young in this lyric tale of violence, redemption, and love reclaimed in the cruel, dry land of Texas. Richard Bausch has said of AND SILENT LEFT THE PLACE: "Elizabeth Bruce''s characters leap off the page at you; they have vividness and substance, and the result, reading her work, is that one feels the life there." Bruce, the winner of the 2007 Washington Writers'' Publishing House Fiction Competition, has published in The Washington Post, Writers'' Roundtable, The Long Short Story, and other publications.