ABOUT SARAH
Sarah Hearn OBE is a writer, former international official, and analyst of global affairs.
She has served with the British Government, NATO, the United Nations, and leading universities, and has written for the World Bank, OECD, The Broker EU, and was awarded an OBE in 2013 by Queen Elizabeth II for her distinguished service. Sarah’s career has taken her across Africa, Asia, Latin America, New York, and London.
Sarah’s non-fiction work has appeared through Bloomsbury and in publications from major international organizations and universities. Her commentary has been featured in Euronews, Deutsche Welle, The Wire, India, The Guardian UK, and many more.
Sarah’s writing is informed by her years on the front lines of global governance, from receiving a Civilian Service Medal for her work with NATO in Afghanistan, to serving at the United Nations in New York, to receiving a Special Achievement Award for her work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She brings a rare, unfiltered perspective to literary satire
Quiet Heretics is her first literary novel: a satirical and emotionally grounded story about conscience, performance, and power inside a fictional global institution
ABOUT QUIET HERETICS
A literary, psychologically rich satire of global power in the digital age.
“These Morality Entrepreneurs feel like highly effective informational combatants.
Only we can’t sanction them, negotiate with them, or declare war back.
We feel less seen than ever.”
— President Fonseca, Quiet Heretics
Quiet Heretics is a novel about moral courage in an age of spectacle—an intimate, darkly observant story of narratives, modern purges, the people who insist on facts, and the quiet price paid by those who keep their consciences intact.
Set on the world’s grandest stage at the World Assembly, mid-level diplomat Caroline Whitmore, self-aware and conscientious, finds herself torn between loyalty to her colleagues and loyalty to her duty. As a digital mob hunts for villains, a principled coworker is marked for repentance, and a fragile island nation collapses under the weight of an online narrative, Caroline must choose between the safety of silence and belonging in the World Assembly and the cost of conscience.
Across the marble corridors of global power, a president in exile, a technocrat with more integrity than influence, a digital morality entrepreneur, and a boss desperate to belong all carry secrets of their own. Their fates coil together as the pressure to perform goodness becomes indistinguishable from the demand to betray it.
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