Silent people - Yvonne Jerrold

"Silent People" is about the silent people who wander among us looking lost, as if they don't quite belong, but don't know how to leave; who 'struggle all their lives, to fit into a world...that feels entirely alien to them, if not downright hostile'. Hebe, who also struggles to fit in, feels drawn to the silent people and yet, 'I could hardly bear to watch them sometimes, knowing what I did about their plight...' She is haunted by memories of Silas, the 'wild dodder boy', who befriended her when she was a child in Dodder's Well. She lost touch with him a long time ago after a disastrous flood and is always watching the river in the hope of seeing him again. Now, returning to her childhood haunts, she finds his home is under threat. Hebe's story wanders the borders of fact and fantasy, of science and art, of sanity and madness, as she catches glimpses of the magic that draws the silent people back to their ancient roots.