A generation learns that knowledge is punished and safety lies in ignorance. The next generation doesn’t know they’re ignorant, because they don’t know what knowledge was. [p. 80]
Memer is a child of rape in Ansul, a city occupied by the Alds, who fear and destroy books. In the house where Memer lives, there is a secret library: the head of the household, the Waylord, can enter it, and so can Memer. She is devoted to the Waylord, who's crippled by the torture he endured as a prisoner of the Alds: he teaches her to read, and together they take joy in the stories and histories they share.
When Memer is seventeen, a famous storyteller from the Uplands comes to Ansul, with his wife and her companion half-lion. (These are Orrec and Gry from Gifts, the preceding book in the 'Annals of the Western Shore' trilogy.) The Waylord welcomes them as guests, and even while rebellion is fomenting in the city, their tales spur him to reclaim his family's heritage, the ancient Oracle whose words might yet bring freedom. And Memer discovers that words have power, whether or not they are written down; and that stories, retold and amended, can change the world.
Another beautifully-written and reflective book, about the power of story and the ways in which secret stories, the legacy of an oppressed people, can change the world. I very much liked the relationship between the Waylord and Memer, and it was good to see Orrec and Gry free of the stifling traditions of the Domains. Also, half-lion!
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