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By Max Barry

Categories: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

In Max Barry's 2013 thriller, a secret organization whose members are called poets trains recruits to use language as a weapon that can bend minds. Emily Ruff, a quick-witted San Francisco orphan who survives by street hustles, is recruited into its school of persuasion. Elsewhere, Wil Parke is ambushed in an airport and told that he holds the secret to a war among the poets. He cannot remember why, and everything turns on a word that kills.

Recommended by 1 person

• Seth Godin: “Max Barry is fabulous, and this is his very best book. It's got marketing, plus black helicopters, Noam Chomsky and expensive shoes. If you can put this book down, you're more disciplined than I am. Fun, thoughtful, perfectly crafted. I'm incredibly jealous.”