A novel · Michael J. Morris
The First
Silence
The Reliquary of Iona
A literary thriller about forbidden knowledge, hidden Vatican archives, and the perilous distance between seeking truth and trying to possess it.
Expected publication · October 2026
The first language, once spoken by all humanity, was lost at Babel.
Can it be recovered?
Daniel, a graduate student at Trinity College Dublin, has built his life around ancient languages and questions of faith. Under the guidance of the brilliant and enigmatic Professor Ashcroft, he uncovers traces of a primordial tongue: not a language that slowly disappeared as mankind evolved, but one that seems to have vanished in a moment.
The search leads from Trinity’s libraries to the hidden archives of the Vatican and, at last, to Iona, where the legacy of cryptic monks may hold the final clue. But studying evil offers no protection from it, or from those who may be hunting the same secrets.
The First Silence is a literary thriller about forbidden knowledge, hidden Vatican archives, and the perilous distance between seeking truth and trying to possess it.
Advance testimony
Early praise for The First Silence.
“Michael Morris has written an engaging novel that beautifully unites faith, history, and the search for truth. The First Silence reminds us that authentic faith welcomes honest inquiry and that history, rightly understood, points beyond itself to the God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ, the fullness of truth.”
Archbishop Emeritus of Denver
“Michael Morris has woven together a gripping mystery that pulls you in and pulls you along, from the cobblestones and academic halls of Dublin, to the lights and shadows of Rome, and the cold salt spray of Iona. The First Silence is a novel that forces questions about the pursuit of Truth over the mere pursuit of knowledge, the search for meaning and purpose, and the movements of grace. Morris' years of careful research and deep study make places and people come alive and leap off the page, and once you start reading, it's hard to put down.”
Medieval historian and Chair of Liberal Arts & Education
“Morris crafts an intellectually luminous and spiritually resonant narrative that draws readers into the drama of truth-seeking. The First Silence invites the reflective soul to discover how scholarship, friendship, and grace converge in the quiet depths of vocation.”
Retired Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and author of The Narrative Spirituality of Dante's Divine Comedy
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