Jordan, Sherryl. The raging quiet.

JORDAN, Sherryl. The raging quiet. Simon & Schuster, Pulse. 362p. c1999. 0-689-87004-3. $5.99. JS*

To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, March 1999: Jordan is a New Zealand writer, and in her afterword, she says she purposefully placed this story of Marnie and Raven in an unknown time and place. Yet, she has created a fully realized world of small village life on the sea, a peasant culture, a time when few people could read and write, a time people believed in witchcraft and were quick to blame anyone who was different. Marnie is a young woman who marries an older man for security for her struggling family; they travel away from the farm community she knows to a place of strangers. The physical side of marriage is a horror to her, but luckily her new husband dies two days after the wedding as he is trying to make their ramshackle cottage livable. The local villagers blame Marnie for his death, and the only person who is kind to the young widow is the local priest, who becomes a major character in this story.

The third character is Raven. a boy about Marnie's age who is wild, unable to speak, and without family. He too, is protected to some extent by the priest, yet frequently he is beaten by the villagers who assume he is possessed by the devil. Marnie allows Raven to take refuge in her cottage when he needs shelter and food; she discovers he is deaf and they haltingly learn to communicate with sign language they create together. These hand flutterings only give the villagers more consternation, proof that the two are evil and must be punished. A climactic scene occurs when Marnie is arrested as a witch and to escape certain death she agrees to a witch trial in which she undergoes an ordeal by fire. This is described in great detail, and Jordan explains at the end of the book that this trial is authentic: "the words and rituals recorded here were used in such ordeals."

Marnie, the priest, and Raven are unforgettable characters, unique individuals whose lives tell once again the age-old story of ignorance, prejudice, and healing love. Since Jordan has worked with deaf children, the creation of the language Marnie and Raven use and their frustrations are acutely realistic. In addition to this element of the story, there is an equally strong one in Marnie's fierce independence during a time when strong-willed women were at risk of condemnation as witches. Jordan's language and themes will challenge her readers, sweeping them into another world. All will recognize the prejudice and fear, however, because we know it exists today in our own world, even if in different guises. (An ALA Best Book for YAs.) Claire Rosser, KLIATT