The Silent

Edmund "Mundy" McDowell is barely fourteen when the Civil War invades the Shenandoah Valley. He watches in shocked horror as a gang of Union and Confederate deserters loot and burn his home and then brutally murder his parents. From that moment he wanders silent and seemingly invisible through a valley of death. He is guided by a mysterious black dog that has eyes of fire and may or may not be real. And he is haunted by the memories and voices of those who've died. On his nightmarish journey, young Mundy will cross a hellish landscape scarred by makeshift hospitals, endless fields of the dead and dying, and the anarchic terror and joy of battle. He will encounter runaway slaves, mystic madmen, suicidal cavalry officers, cold-blooded murderers, enigmatic prostitutes, and nobly misguided heroes, all displaced by the apocalyptic conflagration. And in the end Mundy must decide whether to go back to the world of the living -- or remain an invisible silent spirit.