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Max Barry
Max Barry writes speculative fiction and thrillers. His books often explore themes of corporate culture and technology. He is the author of titles such as The 22 Murders of Madison May.
Lexicon
Synopsis
At a secret school outside Washington, students are stripped of their names and taught the oldest and most dangerous art there is: persuasion. Master it and you become a "poet" — able to bypass reason and command another person with a few precisely chosen words. Emily Ruff, a sharp orphan running three-card monte on the streets of San Francisco, is exactly the raw talent the poets are looking for.
On the other side of the world, Wil Parke is dragged out of an airport by strangers who insist he is the key to a war he has never heard of. He is the only known survivor of Broken Hill, an Australian mining town where a single "bareword" killed thousands — and whether he lives or dies may decide who controls that weapon next.
Told in two braided timelines that converge in a violent, witty finale, Max Barry's Lexicon is a propulsive thriller of language, love, and coercion — asking how much of what we choose is ever really our own.
Genres
Characters
Emily RuffProtagonist
A street con artist recruited and trained as a "poet" for her raw talent with persuasion.
Wil ParkeProtagonist
The sole survivor of the Broken Hill catastrophe, hunted for a secret he doesn't know he holds.
Miss EliotSupporting
A senior poet at the center of the organization's internal war.
