On an unnamed island country ten years after the collapse of a ruthless regime, Lena suspects the senator she was involved with back in her student activist days is taking advantage of the young woman who's been introducing him at rallies. When the young woman ends up dead, Lena must face her own fraught history with the senator and the violent incident that ended their relationship. Moving between the island and New York City, what follows is a riveting exploration of the cost of staying silent and the mixed rewards of speaking up in a profoundly divided country. A timely parable that confirms Novey as an essential new voice in American fiction, Those Who Knew draws on Lena and a chorus of other sharply drawn characters to weave a "taut dystopian thriller [that] bristles with dark energy" (The New York Times).