The Raging Quiet

by Sherryl Jordan

The Raging Quiet is a rather brillaint novel by Sherryl Jordan. It takes place in medieval times, when God was cherished and witches were burned. The novel revolves around a beautiful, hardworking young woman named Marnie, who is sent off to be married to a lord in order to let her family keep their house and farm. However, the marraige doesnt last long. Marnie becomes a widow after 2 days of marriage, her husband having died in a roofing accident. Finding herself alone in a new town, far away from her family, Marnie strikes up a unlikely friendship with Raver, a boy about her same age who is consently being whipped for having "the devil in him" when really he is only deaf and has never learned to talk. Marnie, seeing the goodness in Raver, begins to create a language using only her hands, proving that Raver is not a madman. However, these hand signs and the response of the "towns madman"'don't go over well with the villagers, they begin to believe that Marnie is a witch.