The latest installment in Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle shines a light on new facets of protagonist Cleric Chih’s personality and history, while also exploring refugee experiences.
The Summary
A newly ordained Cleric Chih travels with their companion, a talking hoopoe name Almost Brilliant, to the country Feiyu on their first expedition to collect stories for the records of the Singing Hills Monastery. While disembarking the ferry in the city of Luntien, they’re pickpocketed, and lose all their funds.
While waiting for more money to arrive from the abbey, Cleric Chih works at a local restaurant called Certain Compassion in exchange for room and board. The restaurant is especially busy because Luntien is in the middle of its annual festival to celebrate the start of the rainy season.
In addition to the influx of visitors for the festival, Luntien is experiencing an increase in refugees from the Verdant Islands, a region experiencing political unrest as two countries fight for control over it. Chih helps a group of newly arrived refugees find food and shelter at the local temple, and becomes particularly fond of a girl named Ha Beili, who repeatedly finds herself in conflict with the locals.
Cleric Chih attempts to help the refugees by collecting their names and family ties to search for connections at the next city on their route. In their interactions with the group, they learn more about the history of their homeland and also witness the animosity the people of Luntien hold for outsiders.
While doing their best to promote peace, Chih also stumbles upon a story that seems to connect Certain Compassion to a dark time in Singing Hills’ past.
My Review
I’ve long enjoyed the Singing Hills novellas, and A Long and Speaking Silence is no exception. I’m continually impressed with Vo’s ability to world build so effectively in such a compressed space. The city of Luntien and the Singing Hills Monastery come to life on the pages, despite there being very few of them.
Vo’s character development is also remarkable. The previously installments in the series show an older, wiser, and more patient Cleric Chih, who is skilled at drawing stories out of people and asking the right questions at the right time.
In A Long and Speaking Silence, the newly minted Cleric Chih speaks out of turn, fumbles through interactions with interviewees, and makes several social blunders in their interactions with both locals and the refugees. That said, under their inexperience and youth, they are very much still the same person shown in the other novellas—deeply compassionate, dedicated to their role as a cleric of Singing Hills, and invested in the power of stories.
The plot centering around the refugee camp at the local temple also feels extremely timely, given current political tensions. While Chih becomes heavily involved with the current wave of refugees, they also learn about other immigrant families who made their new homes in Luntien and their struggles to find their places and make a living.
The title is a reference to Cleric Chih’s calling. They note that gaps in history result in “a long and speaking silence,” and feel strongly compelled to excel at their mission to collect the stories and records of the Verdant Island refugees so they are not lost to time.
I always love books that center around the importance of stories and storytelling, so the young Cleric Chih’s musings on their new profession and its meaning resonated with me.
I thoroughly enjoyed A Long and Speaking Silence, and will be eagerly awaiting more tales from the travels of Cleric Chih.
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- Review: A Long and Speaking Silence by Nghi Vo - May 6, 2026
- Review: Sweetbitter Song by Rosie Hewlett - December 27, 2025
- Review: Family and Other Calamities by Leslie Gray Streeter - May 15, 2025