About the book…
When something fell from the something tree, all the words went away. And the world changed.
Monsters slipped from dreams. The land began to shift and ghosts wandered the world in trances. Only with the rise of the named and their committees―Maps, Ghosts, Dreams, and Names―could humanity stand against the terrors of the nameless wilds. Now, they build borders, shackle ghosts and hunt monsters. The nameless are to be fought, and feared.
One unnamed courier of the names committee travels aboard the Number Twelve train, assigning names to the people and things that need them. Her position on the train grants her safety in a world that otherwise fears her. But when she accidentally pulls a monster from a dream, and attacks by the nameless rock the Number Twelve, she is forced to flee. Accompanied by a patchwork ghost, a fretful monster, and a nameless animal who prowls the borders between realities, she sets out to look for her long-lost sister.
Her search for the truth of her own life opens the door to a revolutionary future―for the words she carries will reshape the world.
At once a love letter to the power of language and an exploration of its limits, The Naming Song is the perfect fantasy for anyone who’s ever dreamed of a stranger, freer, more magical world.
About the Author…
Jedediah Berry is the author of two novels, The Naming Song and The Manual of Detection, and a story in cards, The Family Arcana. He lives in Western Massachusetts. Together with his partner, writer Emily Houk, he runs Ninepin Press, an independent publisher of fiction, poetry, and games in unusual shapes.
