THE RAGING QUIET

Against a medieval setting far away and long ago, Jordan crafts a passionate and sensuous tale. Marnie, 15, comes to Torcurra, newly wed to a lord twice her age. He brings her to a tumbledown cottage that belonged to an ancestor, and in two days falls to his death in a drunken stupor. The villagers are deeply suspicious of Marnie’s role in his death, and become more so when she befriends a wild boy believed to be possessed by demons. Marnie finds out that Raver, as he is called, is actually deaf; she renames him Raven and begins to communicate with him in rudimentary sign language. Her only friend is the village priest, who finds her recalcitrant but full of goodness. Beyond some bodice-ripper elements, Jordan adeptly conveys the rhythms of ancient country life, of the tides and the plantings, of festival and gossip; also nicely spun out is the blossoming romance between Raven and Marnie. Fire and sweetness, the pulse of daily existence, how to cope with differences, and the several kinds of love are all present, wrapped in a page-turner to keep readers enthralled. (Fiction. 12-14)