Karen Maitland’s new book, Company of Liars, is a dark but enjoyable read about a somber time in England’s history. Playing with archetypes and themes from The Canterbury Tales, Maitland brings together a mismatched group of pilgrims: a camelot selling hope in the form of fake relics, two musicians, a painter and his wife, a misanthropic magician, a deformed storyteller, a fortune-telling young girl and her nurse. The nine travelers meet in 1348 as the black plague begins to spread through England, and they band together in an attempt to reach the safety of a holy shrine. Through their eyes we see the toll the plague takes on the English population, the commonplace racism and anti-antisemitism that cause people to believe they are safe, the pre-Christian superstition abounding in a nominally Catholic time, and the little-known ritual of the “cripple wedding.”
Against this fascinating, well-researched backdrop is a gripping story, as the company is being haunted by an evil far greater than the plague. Each member of the group holds a dark secret that may get them all killed by a force that may be magic or just human greed and malice. Some characters’ secrets are obvious, others are harder to see, but they all come out dramatically, and no one with a guilty conscience is safe.
Maitland makes great use of magic throughout her novel. Any lover of British historical fiction knows that there is something inherently magical about a journey through medieval England, but that’s because everything seems magical in such superstitious times. As you reach the end, you still won’t be sure what was real and what was impossible, and reasonable people could disagree about whether this novel is fantasy or not.
This is a great gift for anyone who reads historical fiction or mysteries and all lovers of English fiction.
Posted by alaubach
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