The Story of Silence

by Alex Myers

Overview

A knightly fairy tale of royalty and dragons, of midwives with secrets and dashing strangers in dark inns. Taking the original French legend as his starting point, The Story of Silence is a rich, multilayered new story for today’s world – sure to delight fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale.

“Utterly enchanting”
Publishers Weekly

There was once, long ago, a foolish king who decreed that women should not, and would not, inherit. Thus when a girl-child was born to Lord Cador – Merlin-enchanted fighter of dragons and Earl of Cornwall – he secreted her away: to be raised a boy so that the family land and honour would remain intact.

That child’s name was Silence.

Silence must find their own place in a medieval world that is determined to place the many restrictions of gender and class upon them. With dreams of knighthood and a lonely heart to answer, Silence sets out to define themselves.

Soon their silence will be ended.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008352721
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/18/2021
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	296,835
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Alex Myers is a writer, teacher, and speaker. Born and raised in Maine, Alex was raised as a girl and left to attend boarding school. At school, Alex came out as transgender, returning his senior year as a man, and was the first transgender student in his academy’s history. 

Alex earned his bachelor’s at Harvard University, studying Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Alex was the first openly transgender student at Harvard and worked to change the University’s nondiscrimination clause to include gender identity. 

Since earning a master’s degree in religion at Brown, Alex has pursued a career in teaching, as a transgender advocate, and as an active journalist contributing to the Guardian, Slate, THEM and other publications. He currently lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two cats.

Editorial Reviews

04/12/2021

Myers (Continental Divide) skillfully retells a little-known medieval poem about a gender-fluid knight. For celebrated knight Earl Cador to maintain his rule over Cornwall, he must have a son. So when his wife delivers a baby girl named Silence, Cador orders the child to be taken by a nurse and raised in isolation, as a boy. Silence, who is referred to with he/him pronouns for most of the story, grows up kind, moral, obsessed with knightly virtues—and deeply hurt by his father's ostracism. A crass yet wise Merlin weaves in and out of the story as Silence takes an indirect, lonely route through minstrelsy to knighthood and acclaim, all while navigating the struggle between nature and nurture. But Silence's destiny is not to be man or woman, but to be both. The musings on gender are introspective and insightful, and though certain plot points retained from the original poem may discomfort the modern reader—including a false accusation of rape late in the story— Myers honors both the source material and his contemporary readership, and his prose is utterly enchanting. Fantasy and historical fiction readers will delight in this mythical contribution to Arthuriana. (June)

Publishers Weekly

[Myers’] prose is utterly enchanting. Fantasy and historical fiction readers will delight in this mythical contribution to Arthuriana.” 
Publishers Weekly

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS WORKS BY ALEX MYERS

“Remarkable.”
New York Times

From the Publisher