The French advance reading copy of The Orphanmaster – Le Maitre des Orphelins – has landed on my doorstep. The publisher 10/18 will bring it out in May. Isn’t the cover art terrifying?

The Orphanmaster has already come out in Holland and will soon be published in Italy, Hungary and Taiwan as well. So cool to think of people from all corners of the world voyaging in their minds to 1663 Manhattan.

The jacket designers at 10/18 and Viking must have been drinking the same KoolAid. Look at the art for The Orphanmaster’s softcover… it hits the stands in America April 30.

I don’t know if the vulnerable child in either image is meant to represent a specific character in the story, but all I can think of is one of my favorite characters, the toddler Sabine, known as “the Bean,” she with the winning way and persistent lisp, holding up her just-baked “tookie,” blissfully unconscious of the evil that stalks her. Luckily she’s got Blandine van Couvering covering her back.