Hum: a literary spy thriller

“The haunting story of a couple who have become “quietly lost to each other.” Paid to live in an apartment used for surveillance, they are separated and driven into silence by “the continual hum coming from the second bedroom, the source of our livelihood and of our growing discontent.” The wife violates the cardinal rule of their living situation – not to look in the second bedroom – and then seeks out the man she finds is being monitored. Their strange meeting in a movie theatre leads to a dim hotel room and a startling conclusion. The story becomes a cautionary political fable and a meditation on modern-day alienation.” (review from newpages.com)