Naslouchač – Stehlíková Petra (2016)

This original Czech fantasy novel takes place in a fascinating, dark world divided by the Great War. One half is habitable, while the other is contaminated by poisonous gases. A shield protects the habitable half, drawing its energy from a strange mineral called sklenit. Near the shield lives a people known as the glassmakers, the only ones able to mine sklenit, but they pay a high price. The shield's energy field confines them to almost medieval conditions, mining causes illness and deformity, and the glassmakers have been enslaved by people from the lowlands. Thirteen-year-old Ilan is one of the few children born without deformities. To avoid being taken from her family, she has disguised herself as a boy since childhood, hiding beneath the hood and mask that glassmakers must wear as a sign of their subjugation. Because she can listen to sklenit, she begins learning to cut it. Her gift is so exceptional that the captain of the Twenty-Five chooses her for his company of warriors, whose task is to protect the glassmakers' cities from dangerous creatures born of the poisoned air beyond the shield, known as Nasterea. Ilan must protect her secret from the twenty-five warriors, the enemies who enslaved her people. Yet she gradually grows close to the men and discovers the truth that has been concealed from the glassmakers for years.