Prepare for one hell of a journey…
'R.F. Kuang is making magic' ELLE
'A big, bold fantasy romp' GUARDIAN
'[A] truly original and spellbinding hero's-journey story' VOGUE
'I devoured it' RED
One of the BBC's 25 best books of 2025
Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.
Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.
But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and - inconveniently - in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.
But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she's going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.
That's if they can agree on anything.
Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?
2025's most unexpected love story is going to be hell in the new No.1 Sunday Times bestselling novel by R.F. Kuang.
'Literary super-stardom doesn't seem too far out of her reach' THE HERALD
'Mind-bending fantasy' GRAZIA
| ISBN: | 9780008501907 |
| Publication date: | 21st May 2026 |
| Author: | R F Kuang |
| Publisher: | Harper Voyager an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 541 pages |
| Genres: |
Fantasy romance Dark fantasy Contemporary fantasy Urban fantasy Myths and Legends / Mythic fiction Romance: fantasy and paranormal Epic fantasy / heroic fantasy |
Prepare for one hell of a journey…
'R.F. Kuang is making magic' ELLE
'A big, bold fantasy romp' GUARDIAN
'[A] truly original and spellbinding hero's-journey story' VOGUE
'I devoured it' RED
One of the BBC's 25 best books of 2025
Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.
Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.
But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and - inconveniently - in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.
But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she's going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.
That's if they can agree on anything.
Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?
2025's most unexpected love story is going to be hell in the new No.1 Sunday Times bestselling novel by R.F. Kuang.
'Literary super-stardom doesn't seem too far out of her reach' THE HERALD
'Mind-bending fantasy' GRAZIA
Katabasis features in the following genres: Fantasy romance, Dark fantasy, Contemporary fantasy, Urban fantasy, Myths and Legends / Mythic fiction, Romance: fantasy and paranormal, Epic fantasy / heroic fantasy
Katabasis is available in Paperback
Katabasis was written by R F Kuang and published by Harper Voyager an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Katabasis has 541 pages
£9.89