Publication Date: 18/03/2021 ISBN: 9780008352721 Category: Books

The Story of Silence

Alex Myers

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: 18/03/2021 ISBN: 9780008352721 Category: Books

Paperback / Softback £10.99

Mr B's review

Based on a French chivalric fable from 1286, thought lost until a copy was found in an attic in Nottingham in 1947, this is a book as steeped in layers of history and nuance as the story it contains. Narrated by a bard, relaying the story as Silence themselves told it to him, it tells the story of a child born female and raised as a boy in order to be able to inherit Cornwall; a child named, subtly, Silence.

The writing is smooth and welcoming, the narration refreshingly unique (the bard relays Silence’s story, but not without inputs of their own), but the story – God, the story is unforgettable. While it begins slowly, by the time I was about a quarter of the way through, I was so invested that I had to rage-quit multiple times and cool off. It’s so sharp and on the edge, for something set over 700 years ago, but it suits it exactly. Where else could you explore how the ideals of the past fail to meet the ideas of the present quite so effectively?

It is as close to perfectly formed as a novel has ever come, for me. It infuriated me, and gave me hope, and left me reeling. It made its point perfectly and sharply without ever having to state what it was doing or why. It’s a masterpiece of storytelling and I cannot believe more people aren’t screaming about it. It left me with the feeling that truly great works of literature do. That it has marked the next step that human history will take. That we will be studying it, and the context that produced it, and the complexity of its thoughts and ideas and how they are expressed for years to come.

Description

A knightly fairy tale of royalty and dragons, of midwives with secrets and dashing strangers in dark inns. Taking the original French legend as his starting point, The Story of Silence is a rich, multilayered new story for today’s world – sure to delight fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale.

“Utterly enchanting”
Publishers Weekly

There was once, long ago, a foolish king who decreed that women should not, and would not, inherit. Thus when a girl-child was born to Lord Cador – Merlin-enchanted fighter of dragons and Earl of Cornwall – he secreted her away: to be raised a boy so that the family land and honour would remain intact.

That child’s name was Silence.

Silence must find their own place in a medieval world that is determined to place the many restrictions of gender and class upon them. With dreams of knighthood and a lonely heart to answer, Silence sets out to define themselves.

Soon their silence will be ended.

Publisher Review

PRAISE FOR ALEX MYERS

“Deftly written … original and affecting”
Publishers Weekly

“Remarkable.”
New York Times