The Silent History is a new novel that is pushing the concept of what a book can be in the digital world. Partly a book, partly an app, and partly a map-based game, readers are offered an immersive experience that is the first of its kind.

Through the iPhone or iPad app, users are revealed the main story through daily updates called Testimonials. Each offers a new character's perspective that weave together and build the overall narrative. The Testimonials will be delivered in 120 parts over six volumes that play out over a year. The updates won't be available on weekends, and a brief pause will be taken at the end of a volume – to ensure the reader takes time at certain points to contemplate the story.

For readers looking to explore the story in more detail, the app includes hundreds of Field Reports: short, smaller incidents that are tied to a specific place. To unlock these additional parts of the story, users must visit the specific location where they take place. Using the map in the application, readers can track down the location and once within a specific range they are delivered the story.

The novel is a collaboration between Eli Horowitz, former managing editor of McSweeney's, writers Kevin Moffett, Matthew Derby and Russell Quinn, and a team of contributors across five continents. And with the humble paper-book gradually getting sidelined in favour of e-readers, it will be interesting to see how the digital evolution continues.