- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada (Feb 25 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143016814
- ISBN-13: 978-0143016816
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #733,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
It is a time of bounty in the Queensrealm, thanks to Queen Galha, whose wisdom and power are legendary. Her scribes record the glorious events of her reign, but beneath these words lie others—shameful, heartbreaking, and true—that threaten to destroy the realm.
This magnificent prequel to A Telling of Stars is a saga of epic sweep, deeply realized characters, and page-turning suspense. The Silences of Home explores the gulf between official and unwritten accounts of history, and the ways in which individuals, knowingly or not, shape the events of their time—events that pass into myth...or silence.
About the Author
Caitlin Sweet is a graduate of McGill University. After graduation, she taught English in southern Mexico before returning to her home town of Toronto, where she lives with her husband and their two daughters. Caitlin has just finished The Silences of Home (the prequel to A Telling of Stars) to be published by Penguin in March 2005.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic, literally.,
This review is from: Silences of Home (Paperback)
I don't read a lot of fantasy, though I do read challenging fiction constantly. Sweet's book is terrific--complexly layered, compassionate, eloquent, accessible. It's a sophisticated tale of good and evil, filled with characters I care about and personal journeys that matter. It took me to vivid new worlds, and it held me there. You can't ask for much more than that. Now, if only Penguin and Amazon would get together and make this book more readily available . . .
3.0 out of 5 stars
literate but empty?,
By macka "jontyball" (yorks uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Silences of Home (Paperback)
it's difficult to criticise such a well-written book,but there was a lack of any underlying spiritual foundation in it. A tragic travelogue, a meeting of exotic tribes. I couldn't figure out the purpose of the river tribe, they were meditative fruit gatherers but what else? what for? so frustrating. How could our heroine fall for such an insipid and pointless creature.This book left me depressed because there was a tragedy that left no-one enriched or uplifted. I read Le guin many times and feel i've learned something of the human condition but not this author.maybe her next book, i hope!.having said that she is still a class above 99% of present day writers
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful, Thought-provoking, and Exciting Book,
By
This review is from: Silences of Home (Paperback)
I read this book after Sweet's first book, A Telling of Stars. The Silences of Home is written in a different style than that book--multiple viewpoints instead of one, a fast-moving plot instead of dense lyrical prose--but this one is still just as compelling.It is an enchanting book, and I admit that once I got to the halfway point, at which a suspenseful attack scene occurs, I could not put it down. I have sorely neglected my housework over the past two days in order to finish it--I simply had to find out what happened, not only because the story was exciting but because I cared so much about all the characters. The characters of the book are likeable and flawed, as well as extremely complex, like real people, and they act in unpredictable ways. The first half of the book I kept thinking that I was reading foreshadowing of dire events, but halfway through I realized that nothing was going to happen like I thought. And I was right. As I read on the author surprised me again and again. Sometimes the surprises were sweet, sometimes bitter. Just like real life, I could never predict what anyone was going to do. The theme of written history possibly being lies was an interesting one. It was fascinating after reading A Telling of Stars, and learning of the legend of Queen Gahla, to learn in this book what really had transpired during her reign. And to have the characters themselves discussing how these events were to be recorded was an interesting twist! In this way The Silences of Home gave me a great deal of food for thought. In the end I felt that the characters met a fate that they deserved. The ending was not neat and tidy, it was not all happy--some parts were quite sad--but it was right and just. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a stand-alone fantasy novel which is a little bit different--a little more literary than most fantasy, a little more character-driven, a little more complex. Don't be fooled that this story is only one book instead of a trilogy--so much happens in the story. It's a satisfying book that, once you pick it up, I promise you won't be able to put down.
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