A novel by J.F. Penn
Map of Plagues
A city threatened by an ancient plague. A love across borders.
Behind a walled tomb near the Tower of London, above a real plague pit from 1349, a man in a plague doctor's mask steals the first fragment of the Map of Plagues.
Stitched from the skin of Black Death victims, the map marks the island where medieval Mapwalkers quarantined the worst of the pestilence by pushing it off the map.
Sienna and her team must cross the Borderlands to find the remaining fragments first, through the still-living Library of Alexandria, a drowned city beneath the Venice of Africa, and a city of eagles in the sky, before the plague is turned loose on an unsuspecting Earthside.
For readers of Shadow and Bone, Neverwhere and A Darker Shade of Magic.
Available in ebook, paperback, hardback, large print and audiobook. Buying direct supports the author most, and ships worldwide.
The research behind the book
The London plague pits
The prologue's tomb sits above a real 1348-50 Black Death mass grave, uncovered by London's transport excavations.
Alexandria never burned
The great library declined over centuries rather than dying in one fire. In the Borderlands, it never died at all.
Ganvie, the Venice of Africa
The real stilt village on Lake Nokoue, Benin, founded by people whose enemies' religion forbade fighting on water.
Learn more → BeneathThe sunken city of Cambay
The controversial underwater ruins in the Gulf of Cambay, which would be older than any civilisation on Earth.
Learn more → In the skyMeteora and Zhangjiajie
Greek monasteries on rock pillars meet the Chinese peaks that inspired Avatar: together they build the eagle city.
Learn more →The Dark Crystal
The magic-draining Scryers were born from Jo's childhood terror of the Skeksis.
Audiobook available direct from the author and on Audible, Apple, Kobo, Spotify and more.
