This was such an original story! Todd Hewitt is last boy left in Prentisstown. He's the youngest person left after the "talking germ" killed all the women and half the men when he was a baby. The germ also makes animals talk and makes the thoughts and feelings in men's heads audible and visible to all people around them. But curiously, this germ doesn't affect any females. Todd's been raised by two farmers, Ben and Cillian, and is only a month away from becoming a man himself. They live on New World and are the only people left of the settlers that arrived from Old World twenty years earlier. Todd and his talking dog, Manchee, are walking through the swamp one day when Todd picks up a lack of Noise coming from the swamp where the Spackle used to live. The human settlers have killed all or most of the indigenous people on this planet and Todd cannot understand what this silence is in the middle of the swamp. What he discovers is a surprise leads Todd on a dangerous journey where he discovers that all knew was lies and the truth just might kill him.Very enjoyable and of course it ends with a huge cliff-hanger so on to the next!
