Jevick, the pepper merchant’s son, has been raised on stories of Olondria, adistant land where books are as common as they are rare in his home. When hisfather dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly selling trip to Olondria,Jevick’s life is as close to perfect as he can imagine. But just as he revelsin Olondria’s Rabelaisian Feast of Birds, he is pulled drastically off courseand becomes haunted by the ghost of an illiterate young girl.In desperation, Jevick seeks the aid of Olondrian priests and quickly becomesa pawn in the struggle between the empire’s two most powerful cults. Yet evenas the country shimmers on the cusp of war, he must face his ghost and learnher story before he has any chance of becoming free by setting her free: anordeal that challenges his understanding of art and life, home and exile, andthe limits of that seductive necromancy, reading.