“This book should be required reading. The Majority is a tiny hammer in Silver’s hand, undetectable and hovering overhead, the act of reading like a trigger breaking you apart over and over again.

—Natashia Deón, NAACP-nominated author of Grace

A riveting novel of motherhood and ambition, love and friendship, and one woman’s fight to be a Supreme Court justice.

Half of the United States is waiting for Justice Sylvia Olin Bernstein to die. The other half is praying for her to hold on. At eighty-three, “the contemptuous S.O.B.” doesn’t have much time left. What she does have is her story.

Covering the span of fifty years, Sylvia’s personal account reveals the intimate truth about a woman who is not just a brilliant mind but a daughter, a best friend, a wife, and a mother. Caught in a tug-of-war between career and family, truth and convenience, progress and patience, she will be given a chance to change the course of American history.

“Thought-provoking” 
Janet Fitch,
New York Times Bestselling author of White Oleander

 “A story of secrets”
Amanda Eyre Ward,
New york times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

“Unforgettable” 
Sarah McCoy,
New York Times bestselling author of Marilla of green gables

“It changed me.”
Natashia Deón,
NAACP-nominate author of Grace and the perishing

“Restored my faith in justice.”
Lynn Steger Strong,
Author of Flight

“Intimate and epic” 
Edan Lepucki,
New York times bestselling author of California

About Elizabeth L. Silver

Elizabeth L Silver is the author of the novel, The Majority (Riverhead), as well as the memoir, The Tincture of Time: A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty (Penguin Press), and the novel, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton (Crown). Her work has been called “fantastic” by the Washington Post, “masterful” by The Wall Street Journal, “important” by the Los Angeles Times, has been published in seven languages, and optioned for film. A graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Beasley School of Law, and The University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing MFA, Elizabeth has written for The Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Ms. Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books,  McSweeney's, and others, and currently teaches creative writing with the UCLA Writers Program. She is the founder and director of Onward Literary and lives in Los Angeles with her family. 

Explore the books

As featured in...

Featured Article:

Like Finding a Snowball in a Blizzard

For the 50 percent of women with dense breasts, mammography is only a starting point for early cancer screening.

Ms. Magazine, 2024

Onward Literary Mentoring, LLC is the first step for the next page of your creative life.

We are a writing program for people who are serious about taking their work to the next level by connecting you with a professional writer who will provide you with individualized writing instruction and guidance as you develop a project over time.