New York : Eos, c2007.
504 p. ; 22 cm.
Someone checking out this book these days might be forgiven for thinking, "Oh, it's one of those books that has jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon," - you know, brave young teen female hero rebelling against the post-war authoritarian dictatorship, etc., etc. But DeVita published his novel a year before Hunger Games was published and in his afterword he describes writing the book over the course of six years...
One of the beautiful things about The Silenced, is that it was inspired by DeVita's discovery and subsequent research into the Hans and Sophie Scholl "White Rose" resistance movement against the Nazis. It gives the novel a poignancy and depth - and hopefully will intrigue some young readers into learning about totalitarianism, WWII, and resistance.
The novel is interesting, exciting and well written. It is set in a fictional post-war dystopian future where power is wielded by the dictatorial Zero Tolerance (ZT) party. It is a world of Youth Training Facilities (YTFs), drones, disappeared persons, informants, surveillance and censorship.
The back story to my reading this novel was my discovering that it had been reissued by Milkweed Press. I was reading the Milkweed Press blog - with an eye toward their poetry - when the post about The Silenced caught my eye. It's a great story - involving a class of 8th grade fans, a teacher, and even Louise Erdrich! After reading the post, I ordered a copy of the paperback with its much improved cover (see the graphic above), and I'll definitely recommend it.
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