Society of liars

The plague is within us, and the cloak will not save you. Get some sleep, whoever you can! In the summer of 1348, the bubonic plague was introduced into England from the continent and is taking all who cross its path. And that's why the nine outcasts are rushing from the South of England harbour as far inland as their legs will take them. As they wander in search of uncertain tomorrows, they regale each other with stories that are not meant to pass the time, but to cover up what others are not allowed to know. However, it is not only the professional swordsman Zophiel, who provided the chariot and the battered herd, but also the swan-man Cygnus with the disfigured stump of his left arm, the retired court jacquard Rodrigo and his henchman Jofre, who tell tales about themselves. The painter Osmond and his pregnant wife Adele, and even the eternally veiled healer Pleasance and her ward Narigorm, who, like all the albinos of the world, sees more than they should. And what is the scarred Camelot, who hastily organized the escape and continuously comments on it, hiding from the expedition? This wandering amulet seller probably suspects most of all that everyone around him is lying, as when he prints - even though the printing press itself hasn't even been invented yet. And all this stigma is compounded by the persistent rains, for in that evil year the superstition of Medardo's hood came true far more reliably than all the tales of what bloodthirsty beasts lurked for travellers on the road. Only if these beasts are more likely to go hand in hand with them, as it's becoming increasingly clear that one can't run away from the other... In an exquisite variation on The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron, a British observer of the shadows in human nature focuses on what the pandemic is doing to us. And he finds that under her cruel reign the refuges, not to mention the goodness of her heart, are dwindling. "There's magic behind every tree, witchcraft and superstition, it's not just the vampires who are ready, psychics and werewolves, but most of all the immeasurable horror of refugees fleeing the world, who's gone crazy. Does it remind you of another epidemic?" - Kirkus Reviews (on the second edition of 2021) "This extraordinary novel is a tribute to the narrative fervor of the protagonists of Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Like those famous prequels, it plunges us right into the deadly atmosphere of the plague, only not like the VIPs in the first series. Directly on stage and with such detail about the soul of the man that we did not wish to stand so close..." - Süddeutsche Zeitung "An unforgettable journey to places that cannot be reached by car or train. The 14th-century mentality is not only well known to an author versed in psychology, but she has managed to portray it so believably that it sends shivers down our spines." - Daily Express "Mysterious, sinister and utterly absorbing! It's that kind of book, where you go all the way to the back of the cover and immediately reopen it in hope, there's got to be a few more pages in there somewhere." - Diana Gabaldon, author of the bestselling Stranger series "Folklore and storytelling add order and a sense of ourselves to the terrifying chaos of the world, that we can control things to some extent, that's going on in it. People have always needed it and will continue to need it. After all, even modern news in all its forms does not just present us with the bare facts, even if it reports in a completely objective manner. Information is woven into it so that we can understand it. After all, reporters are most often given assignments: 'Go and find me a story. '" - from an interview with the author