The Handmaid's Tale meets Alice in Wonderland in this gripping and imaginative historical novel
about a shunned orphan girl in 16th-century England who is ensnared in a deadly royal plot and
must turn her subjugation into her power. 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 Eater-a 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. A keenly researched feminist arc of
unexpected abundance reckoning intellect and ferocious survival (Maria Dahvana Headley
author of The Mere Wife) Sin Eater is a dark rich story replete with humor unforgettable
characters and arcane mysteries. It casts a spell on your heart and mind until the final page
(Jennie Melamed author of Gather the Daughters).
