Company of Liars

Title: Company of Liars

 

Author: Karen Maitland

Publisher: Delacourt Press (2008)

 

Genre(s): Fiction, Historical Fiction

Length: 453 pages

Synopsis:  Plague has come to medieval England.  Some are hopeful that it will burn itself out.  Some cling to rites and rituals, hoping they will keep the disease at bay, and some just hope to outrun it.  This story's narrator is one of the latter, a camelot, or seller of religious relics (of dubious provenance).  His flight is not a solitary one, however.  On his way, he meets Rodrigo and his apprentice Jofre, musicians who've lost their place in a nobleman's house.  They're not the last to join this band of misfits.  Before long they're joined by Zophiel, a traveling magician, Pleasance, an herb woman, Osmund the painter and his pregnant wife Adela, and Cygnus, a storyteller.  The strangest member of their company, however, is a young girl called Narigorm, a girl with hair as white as snow and a complexion like skimmed milk.  She's a fortune teller, reading the future in runes that never lie.  Everyone in this company has a secret, some dangerous, some horrible.  For them, one who can see the truth in the fall of the runes could be even more destructive than the deadly plague.

 

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion:  I took a chance on this book.  Knowing nothing of it, I spotted it on the top shelf at the library.  Eying the seven other books I already carried, I decided I might as well add it to the stack.  It was well worth it.  The book weaves a wonderful tale, walking a fine line between history and fantasy.  The characters are unique and diverse, the hints at their secrets subtle and tantalizing.  There's an air of magic about it, not quite enough to call the book a fantasy, but enough to make it a world apart.  It's like a ghost story or a fairy tale, not quite believable in the telling, but perfectly believable to the characters it contains.  Maitland's created a grim world: a soggy, sour, stinking England rotting from the plague and corruption.  The fear is contagious as well, fear of dangers both known and unknown.  Fate has a role to play in this book as well as magic.  The terrible inexorability of what will befall this strange company is as frightening as the plague rolling across the country.  It's a complex, subtle story that's quite difficult to discuss without giving anything away.  It's unexpected, dark, funny, bitter and poignant.  In short, read it.  You'll be glad you did.