âFor fans of The Handmaidâs Tale...a debut novel with a dark setting and an unforgettable heroine...is a riveting depiction of hard-won female empowermentâ (The Washington Post).
The Sin Eater walks among us, unseen, unheard
Sins of our flesh become sins of Hers
Following Her to the grave, unseen, unheard
The Sin Eater Walks Among Us.
For the crime of stealing bread, fourteen-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eaterâa shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven.
Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured, and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.
âVery much reminiscent of The Handmaidâs TaleâŚit transcends its historical roots to give us a modern heroineâ (Kirkus Reviews). âA novel as strange as it is captivatingâ (BuzzFeed), The Sin Eater âis a treat for fans of feminist speculative fictionâ (Publishers Weekly) and âexactly what historical fiction lovers have unknowingly cravedâ (New York Journal of Books).