The book was possibly written in the nineteenth century? I am not sure if she actually teaches him sign language but it is something to that effect. The town or some people think that what she does is crazy and they burn her hand or something to see if she is a witch.
.
Join the Conversation
Leave a comment
“The Raging Quiet” by Sherryl Jordan”
http://www.amazon.com/Raging-Quiet-Sherryl-Jordan/dp/0689870043/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210866067&sr=1-1
“In an ancient time, a newlywed girl is taken to a seaside thatched cottage by her much older husband. His drunken lovemaking repels her, but Marnie must endure because he is the lord’s middle son and she has married him to save her family from starvation. When he is killed in a fall, she feels more release than grief, in spite of the village rumors that she caused his death with a witch’s curse. Suspicions grow when she befriends an outcast, a “mad” boy called Raver whose rages and yammerings look to villagers like the work of the devil. But Marnie realizes that the boy is deaf, and his bursts of anger come from his inability to communicate. With the help of the kindly and wise village priest, she begins to invent a sign language for him”