Soundless

In her isolated mountaintop village, Fei belongs to the elite class of artists who paint the daily news for the community of deaf inhabitants. Miners procure metals sent down by zip line in return for the village's rations. Kim Mai Guest's Asian accent fits this world, inspired by Chinese myth. She speaks delicately and deferentially, as Fei is both thoughtful and conformist. Her acquiescent voice gathers strength, however, when Fei's sister and others begin losing their sight. A significant event spurs Fei to question tradition and the village's dependence on the zip line. Guest creates authentic male characters, too, particularly artistic master Elder Chen and Fei's forbidden love interest, miner Lee Wei. There's an irony in an audiobook about the deaf. Guest delivers this story of adventure, love, and myth with respect and wonder. L.T. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

October 5, 2015
Fei lives in a mountain village whose inhabitants have been deaf for generations, relying on artists like her for their daily news. Isolated by rockslides and unable to descend the mountain, the villagers depend on food supplied via a pulley system from the kingdom below. The price of survival is the mountain's gold and silver, and the majority of the population works in the mines. But now Fei's people, including her beloved sister, are starting to go blind, which will mean their extinction. After a vivid dream, Fei wakes with the gift of hearing and struggles to comprehend the new sensation of sound. She and her childhood friend Li Wei embark on a desperate effort to avert her people's horrifying fate. Like her heroine, Mead (the Vampire Academy series) paints with a delicate brush (when Fei sees brightly colored silk for the first time, readers feel it as an explosion of the senses), creating a fablelike story that melds folktale, sacrifice, romance, and the stark realization of humanity's capacity to exploit others for profit. Ages 12âup. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.