A Stranger in Olondria — Sofia Samatar

Time Magazine: 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time · World Fantasy, British Fantasy, & Crawford Award winner

Jevick, the pepper merchant's son, has been raised on stories of
Olondria, a distant land where books are as common as they are rare in
his home. When his father dies and Jevick takes his place on the yearly
selling trip to Olondria, Jevick's life is as close to perfect as he can
imagine. But just as he revels in Olondria's Rabelaisian Feast of
Birds, he is pulled drastically off course and becomes haunted by the
ghost of an illiterate young girl.
In desperation, Jevick seeks
the aid of Olondrian priests and quickly becomes a pawn in the struggle
between the empire's two most powerful cults. Yet even as the country
shimmers on the cusp of war, he must face his ghost and learn her story
before he has any chance of becoming free by setting her free: an
ordeal that challenges his understanding of art and life, home and
exile, and the limits of that seductive necromancy, reading.
A Stranger in Olondria
is a skillful and immersive debut fantasy novel that pulls the reader
in deeper and deeper with twists and turns reminiscent of George R. R.
Martin and Joe Hill.