And anyway, if he cared so much about what I do, he shouldn’t have. These are mine, and I’ll burn them up once I’m done with them. The argument he gave was that mere ink and paper can be lost or destroyed or taken from you. But one option must be to write a little down, because here I am, writing, even though I’m not really supposed to. Rather, I don’t agree entirely, but I don’t disagree entirely either. My former master-Chant thought we shouldn’t write down the things we know. I suppose things like this usually start with an apology of some sort. But in the right hands, a story can rebuild a broken dam, keep the floodwaters back, and save a life-or thousands of lives. In this “wise, moving, and captivating adventure” ( Publishers Weekly, starred review), a young storyteller must embrace his own skills and discover that a story can be powerful enough to bring a nation to its knees, certainly. The prices skyrocket, but when disaster looms, Ylfing must face what he has done and decide who he wants to be: a man who walks away and lets the city shatter, as his master did? Or will he embrace the power of stories to save ten thousand lives? At Sterre’s command, Ylfing begins telling stories once more, fanning the city into a mania for a few shipments of an exotic flower. That is, until Ylfing’s employer finds out what he is, what he does, and what he knows. But Ylfing has been struggling to come to terms with what his master did, with the audiences he’s been alienated from, and with the stories he can no longer trust himself to tell. Now Ylfing is all alone in a new realm, brokenhearted and grieving-but a Chant in his own right, employed as a translator to a wealthy merchant of luxury goods, Sterre de Waeyer.

Three years ago, Yfling watched his master-Chant tear a nation apart with nothing but the words on his tongue. The follow-up to the fan-favorite A Conspiracy of Truths “reveals the author’s stunning prose, beautiful worldbuilding, and emotional detail,” ( Library Journal, starred review) and serves as a timely reminder that the words we wield can bring destruction-or salvation.

A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland