Sang
Book not yet available in English
Summary:
In a world set in the future, people live in the aftermath of the black rains and the clan wars that followed. 16-year-old Kong Dawei lives with his brother Ren, his crush Dray and other orphan children in a northern village called Namla. Dawei has made a vow of silence and communicates with sign language. To pay his civil debt, Dawei works as a feared bianfu, a courier. Dawei and his pet hawk, Qiu, have a telepathic connection, which helps with the job. When a shipment of banned firearms goes wrong, Dawei and Ren are forced to flee to the capital city of Fusang in the south. However, the authorities are able to track the payment devices attached to their wrists and the brothers are caught. As a punishment Dawei is captured and sold into slavery to the tiger clan that rules the region. He is trained to be the guardian of the ruling family. The story continues in Naraka, the second book of the duology.
Edited by: Lastenkirjainstituutti
Comment:
The fantasy book’s imagined post-eco-disaster world has elements of Chinese and Tibetan culture.Different regions are ruled by monarchies and inequality can be seen everywhere. Human dignity is measured in money, and if money runs out, resources and possibilities are limited. The novel is a depiction of power, inequality, family and love in a totalitarian world. The protagonist Dawei is queer and he communicates with sign language. In the capital city of Fusang sign language and other languages are restricted, so Dawei is forced to break his vow of silence. Giving up sign language and starting to speak out loud shatters his sense of identity.