SuitabookHush
Donna Jo Napoli
- Reading
- Consider reading together and pausing around the captivity and escape passages. Let the reader choose whether to discuss them straight away or return to them later.
- Themes
- Silence and survival: Melkorka takes a vow of silence while held captive; her captors become fascinated by it, and she focuses on learning about them. Her refusal to speak draws her captors’ fascination while she focuses on learning about them.
- Vivid historical storytelling: The story uses precise sensory detail, from embroidery to the smell of sheep dung, in its account of Melkorka’s ordeal. The detailed, cinematic prose brings the physical texture of the setting and hardship close to the reader.
- Worth knowing
- Kidnapping, enslavement, violence, a desperate escape attempt and pregnancy during captivity are part of the story.