The Silent Boy (Andrew Taylor).

"The Silent Boy" - исторический триллер, написанный автором бестселлера "The American Boy". События происходят во время Французской революции. Роман был признан "Историческим романом года" газетами The Times и Sunday Times, а также был выбран одной из книг года по версии радиостанции Radio 4.

Действие разворачивается в 1792 году в Париже, где творится кровавая революция, и тысячи людей теряют свои головы под гильотиной. Лондонский торговец Эдвард Сэвил получает известие о смерти своей бывшей жены во Франции. Ее десятилетний сын Чарльз был увезен в английскую глубинку в поместье Чарнвуд-Корт беженцами-эмигрантами.

Сэвил отправляется за Чарльзом, но обнаруживает, что мальчик не говорит ни слова и живет в своем мире. Он стал свидетелем невообразимых ужасов, но у него есть страшная тайна, которая заставляет его молчать. Его молчание - это единственное, что может его защитить. Но, как оказывается, не настолько, как он думал...

Andrew Taylor's novel, The Silent Boy explores the period of the French Revolution through the eyes of a mute child who is a witness to its various atrocities.

Set in 1789, Paris is ruled by terror as the moneyed and influential are reaping the benefits of an emergent system of exploitation while those without wealth find themselves pitted against each other in a struggle for survival. This environment perfectly caters to a group of Republican soldiers - irregulars or toughs as they are known - operating alongside brutal Madame Guillotine, which paradoxically ensures the reification of the ideals of equality amidst stunning inequalities in stark contrast to the virtues of nobleness claimed by radical supporters of liberty and voice.

Seeded with political tenets of those who would emerge years later as some of the most noteworthy leaders in the age, this novel from the multitalented author chronicling the birth of modern thought on the radicalisation of oppressed classes and therefore has a meaty subtext (if given room to unfurl freely), while simultaneously being steeped to the core in stories of survival and horror through several character's prisms: Charles' own experience; Edward Saville, sent by a rich uncle in pursuit of fifty pounds determined to save his little niece from starvation in London; Saville's older sister Rachael; her cralgoy (an English woman) Hannah Pegler, Harry Rickettor, the mysterious Emma Cordova; Madamou Henriette, a prostitute who savours past memories for truth in contrast to reigning worldviews of her day; and, of course, a beguiling "Louvre" which only casts shadows amid its ancient echoes and tunnels of intense moral reverberations echoed back across centuries so that visitors' spirits are challenged and their utterances frequently poignant life-altering revelations.

As would be expected, of such brilliance, this beautifully woven tale, laced with political history and fluid prose, exposes the extent of historical context leading up to the stormy days of events, translates and cauterizes contemporary deep-seated ideas that weary flesh with a narrative inescapably mesmerizing.