The Midnight Charter
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- €4.49
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- €4.49
Publisher Description
In the city of Agora, anything can be bought and sold. Even children are possessions until their twelfth birthday.
Mark has been sold by his father, and Lily, an orphan from birth, has bartered for her life. Thrown together by chance, in the ancient tower of Count Stelli, they face an existence of poverty and servitude, unless they can find a way to break free.
But, unbeknown to Mark and Lily, they are being watched by the ruler of the city. Can they survive the traps and treachery that await them and discover the dark secret that binds them together?
Their lives depend on this question: what is the Midnight Charter?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the walled city of Agora, residents literally live or die based on their worth. Everything is traded, from goods and services to lives even emotions can be bottled and sold all bound in contracts ("Everyone makes their way by bartering something, for there is always someone who will trade"). Just shy of his 12th birthday, Mark is sold by his father to Dr. Theophilus, who is researching a widespread plague. After recovering from the shock of being sold (and from the plague), Mark becomes fast friends with Lily, servant to the powerful astrologer Count Stelli. But the children's lives diverge quickly: when the doctor is cast out of Count Stelli's tower, Mark and Lily contract with each other to switch masters. Meanwhile, the city's most powerful citizens have plans for them, and both find their beliefs and lives pitted against forces they barely understand and against each other. Charity, greed, freedom, fate and political scheming are all woven through debut author Whitley's richly conceived world. Readers will be buoyed by every small triumph that cannot be recorded in an account book. Ages 11 14.
