2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, Fantasy


Only Ludwig can save the fairies—if he can be bothered to.


Long before sirens and subways, New York’s first residents—noise-loathing fairies—fled underground to escape the city’s ever-increasing roar. Now, after centuries of failed plots to bring silence to the city, they’re trying something new: hiring a human.


When Ludwig, a comfort-obsessed slacker, begins hearing a word no one else remembers speaking, he follows its trail to a hidden fairy society beneath Times Square. There, he meets An Exalted Northwind, a fairy enchantress determined to forgo her species’ signature fondness for cruelty in favor of peacefully reclaiming the surface. But she can’t do it without a human go-between.


As payment for Ludwig’s help, she offers him a ruby-defecating piglet. Unfortunately for the fairies, Ludwig’s sudden wealth leaves him free to do any job except the one he’s been given—like becoming an athleisure fashion mogul. As the fairies become increasingly desperate, Ludwig must choose between comfort and accountability before New York City is forever undone by fairy vengeance.


The Loudest Place on Earth is an urban fable of defiance and consequence, where even magic must make way for the modern.