Company of Liars, a Novel of the Plague

The Year Is 1348 And The First Plague Victim Has Reached English Shores. Panic Erupts Around The Country And A Small Band Of Travellers Comes Together To Outrun The Deadly Disease, Unaware That Something Far More Deadly Is -in Fact - Travelling With Them. The Ill-assorted Company - A Scarred Trader In Holy Relics, A Conjurer, Two Musicians, A Healer And A Deformed Storyteller - Are All Concealing Secrets And Lies. And At Their Heart Is The Strange, Cold Child - Narigorm - Who Reads The Runes. But As Law And Order Breaks Down Across The Country And The Battle For Survival Becomes Ever More Fierce, Narigorm Mercilessly Compels Each Of Her Fellow Travellers To Reveal The Truth ... And Each In Turn Is Driven To A Cruel And Unnatural Death. In this extraordinary novel, Karen Maitland delivers a dazzling reinterpretation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales--an ingenious alchemy of history, mystery, and powerful human drama. The year is 1348. The Black Plague grips the country. In a world ruled by faith and fear, nine desperate strangers, brought together by chance, attempt to outrun the certain death that is running inexorably toward them.Each member of this motley company has a story to tell. From Camelot, the relic-seller who will become the group's leader, to Cygnus, the one-armed storyteller . . . from the strange, silent child called Narigorm to a painter and his pregnant wife, each has a secret. None is what they seem. And one among them conceals the darkest secret of all--propelling these liars to a destiny they never saw coming.Magical, heart-quickening, and raw, Company of Liars is a work of vaulting imagination from a powerful new voice in historical fiction.From the Hardcover edition.