Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future—arriving March 2023 from Tordotcom Publishing.
What does it mean to “be-in-kind” with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luden’s case, to be-in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes, smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages, even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.
Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.
As the harsh winter months threaten the pack’s survival and Sean’s marriage spirals down the drain, she’ll be faced with the consequences of her negligence—and be forced to choose whether she’ll let the world of wolves and the world she’s known both slip through her fingers.
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“Feed Them Silence is a toxic love story with the world we’re killing, delivered in Mandelo’s visceral, melancholic prose. You’ll want to put it down, but you won’t.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches
“Holy hell, what a visceral and heart-clenching book. Feed Them Silence is a searing portrait of what it means to give up distance for the sake of understanding.” —Sarah Gailey, bestselling author of Magic for Liars
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Feed Them Silence
Lee Mandelo is a writer, critic, and occasional editor whose fields of interest include speculative and queer fiction, especially when the two coincide. They have been a past nominee for various awards including the Nebula, Lambda, and Hugo; their work can be found in magazines such as Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, and Nightmare. Aside from a brief stint overseas learning to speak Scouse, Mandelo has spent their life ranging across Kentucky; currently they live in Lexington where they are pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky. Summer Sons is their first novel.
