The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking, Book One

In a town of men, Todd Hewitt is the only boy. Everyone is waiting for him to turn thirteen; he knows because, like everyone else in Prentisstown, Todd hears Noise-the ubiquitous, audible thoughts of men and animals. Supposedly silence hasn't existed since the alien attack that killed all women and infected all men with the Noise germ. But when Todd and his dog, Manchee, discover a patch of silence in the swamp outside town, all that Todd knows about his world suddenly seems false. Confronted with the townsmen's malicious plans for his future, Todd flees through the swamp, where he finds something else that shouldn't exist: a girl. Winner of the 2008 Guardian Children’s Prize. Winner of the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize.