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Cover of A Long and Speaking Silence

A Long and Speaking Silence

core novella 2026 The Singing Hills Cycle

Record

First published2026
Original language EN
Work typenovella
Canon statuscore
Reader rating4.09 (2,155 ratings, collected 2026-09-14)
First-edition ISBN9781250386427

Synopsis

A Long and Speaking Silence, seventh novella in Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle, follows a newly independent Chih, now established in their own clerical role, as they arrive with their hoopoe companion, Almost Brilliant, in the river town of Luntien on the banks of the Ya-le River during its rainy season celebration. The gathering is disrupted by the arrival of sea refugees, displaced people mourning the home they have lost, whose presence sparks suspicion and tension among the townspeople. As Chih settles into the difficult work of listening to and recording the conflicting, often ugly accounts emerging from both sides of the dispute, they begin to sense that events in Luntien may connect to an unresolved mystery reaching back to their own abbey at Singing Hills.

Where it sits

Notes

  • 7th entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, published May 5, 2026.
  • From the series record (The Singing Hills Cycle): Ongoing connected-novella cycle following the wandering cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant, collecting oral histories across the world of Anh. A seventh entry, A Long and Speaking Silence, has been announced but not yet published as of this record.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.

  • Publication order, within the series The Singing Hills Cycle: position 7 of 7: previous A Mouthful of Dust (2025)

Sources

← The Singing Hills Cycle dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.