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 ...
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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."
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I won't go into a synopsis as this appears to have been done already. I found this book amazing, the charaters were so alive and real that I felt I had gotten to know them personally. Maitland certainly knows how to grip a reader. I only hope she keeps up the great work.
KLSummers
Dec 27, 2009
incredible
This really is a great book. There's so much in it without becoming dull or droning. It's told from the perspective of a one-eyed outcast who slowly gathers friends who themselves draw him into deeper and darker secrets, while all around them the rest of the country is beseiged by the plague. It's mysterious and powerfully written, drawing out the horror and making it all the scarier with each seemingly unanswerable question.
quasar
Jun 26, 2009
a new genre - medieval horror!
Maitland story follows a motley group of travelers through England as the plague ravages villages and unrelenting rain ravages the countryside. Each person in the group has something to hide and their secrets are slowly uncovered as they struggle through the country changing their route as they try desperately try to avoid 'the pestilence'. The novel starts out as a clever , dark 'canturbery tales' story, then morphs into medieval horror. Facinating information about daily life, customs and superstitions in the 14th century, a little slow in places, but overall, creative and gripping.
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