Singer in the Snow

Set in the same world as Louis Marley’s other young adult fantasy novels, three Gifted girls embark on a journey of self-discovery as they learn to advocate for themselves and their unique abilities.

“Remember the first time you read Le Guin’s Earthsea novels or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings? All that timeless magic and wisdom is just as powerful in Singer in the Snow—an instant classic.”—Paul Goat Allen, literary critic

On Nevya, an ice planet without technology, summer comes once every five years. To be outside after nightfall means certain death. Nevyans rely on their Cantors and Cantrixes, men and women with the ability to channel psi energy through music, creating heat and light.

Mreen is possibly the most talented Cantrix ever trained at Conservatory—but she is unable to make a sound. When she is sent to replace an aging Cantor at the House of Tarus, Mreen is accompanied by a younger Singer, Emle, who will communicate for Mreen, and teach Tarus’s Housemembers the Cantrix’s finger-symbol alphabet—and try to come to terms with her own flawed Gift, her inability to channel her psi.

The two young women, so long sheltered by Conservatory, face many challenges. Then they find out about Gwin, a young girl whose abusive stepfather wants to exploit her psi-Gift talents—and in reaching out to help her, both Mreen and Emle discover they are learning how to help themselves.