Silence & Song

“Melanie Rae Thon belts out her stories in a tone and style reminiscent of classic blues singers. . . . The reader is swept along not only by her remarkable characterizations, but also by the taut, magic current of her prose, which carries an exhilarating rhythmic punch.”
—New York Times Book Review

“The rhythmic beauty of Thon’s writing is everywhere extraordinary: Here is a writer who can really sing the blues.”
—Kirkus

“[Thon] is a writer worth reading for her soulfulness and her sensual detail.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

"The reader is made constantly aware that language, not story, is the irreducible medium of fiction, that 'what happened' is only the beginning of the explorations a work of fiction might make. Thon is interested in the long reach of events, the mental afterimages they leave, the attempt to reckon with their consequences."
—Full Stop

“Thon, like no one else alive, captures the pain and the ecstasy of our existence, its harrowing, too-often brutal nature, and the transcendent joy of soil and souls, making sense of the urge to hurt and the will to rescue, the unbearable loneliness and the solace that makes life bearable.  Her slender volumes speak volumes about humanity in all its agony and its undying glory.”
—The Inkslinger