I would be mid-meal, fork halfway to my mouth, and some mysterious tug at the center of my chest-like a rope gone taut-would stir me from stillness and send me back to the pages of this book. But that story occupied the space of an itch there, the burned edge of something unfinished. I did not want to allow any thoughts of Baru, Tain Hu, and the whole ugly tangle of their story to enter my mind. Instead, I just quietly shelved The Traitor Baru Cormorant under “to-review” and tried disappearing into other books. How do you talk about a book that has completely obliterated your capacity for language?įor days after I finished reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant, I searched in some cobwebbed closet of my memory for words that might convey the acuity of my feeling, groping in the dark for any pieces of disused language that might help me make sense of my reading experience-but my arms, each time, closed on nothing. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.īut Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals.

Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The traitor baru cormorant