"This powerful and beautiful novel evoking the Hundred Years’ War is from a master storyteller and has been chosen as a LoveReading Star Book."
Each time, each and every time, I fall more in love with Guy Gavriel Kay’s writing. The wait between books, the expectation, knowing that when I finally open the pages I’m going to feel that familiar and exquisite ache of recognition alongside the startling thrill of discovery. To put it simply, he is my favourite author, his words have kept me company for forty years and they have shaped my love of reading. Written on the Dark slips into the city of Orane in Ferrieres during a harsh winter, and we meet a poet. The history of our world shapes this fictional story, with elements of the Hundred Years’ War making an appearance. Hugely epic in scope yet as intimate as can be, assassinations of consequence and raging battles are met as equals by those moments and people who dwell within the margins. It’s cleverly done, and entirely possible for someone on the page for just a sentence or two to form an everlasting memory in my mind. Notes from history are sometimes altered, and that is why I so appreciate the author’s wish to change the setting and names. This is his take, his words, his wishes, and they create the most emotionally compelling story. I cried, several times, as my thoughts and feelings were caught and thoroughly tested before being released. Words matter, and these words matter to me, so I’ve chosen this novel as a LoveReading Star Book as well as a Liz Pick of the Month. Written on the Dark is a beautifully striking and eloquent tale of individual and momentous battles for survival and power, for honour and love, and I absolutely adored it. Highly recommended.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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A sweeping new novel of love and war that brilliantly evokes the drama and turbulence of medieval France from the internationally bestselling author of Tigana, All the Seas of the World, and A Brightness Long Ago.
Thierry Villar is a well-known - even notorious - tavern poet, intimately familiar with the rogues and shadows of that world, but not at all with courts and power. He is an unlikely person, despite his quickness, to be swept into the deadly contests of ambitious royals, assassins, and invading armies.
But he is indeed drawn into all these things on a savagely cold night in his beloved city of Orane. And so Thierry must use all the intelligence and charm he can muster as power struggles merge with a decades-long war to bring his country to the brink of destruction.
As he does, he meets his poetic equal in an aristocratic woman and is drawn to more than one unsettling person with a connection to the world beyond this one. He also crosses paths with an extraordinary young woman driven by voices within to try to heal the ailing king - and help his forces in war. A wide and varied set of people from all walks of life take their places in the rich tapestry of this story.
Both sweeping and intimate, Written on the Dark is an elegant tour de force about power and ambition playing out amid the equally intense human need for art and beauty, and memories to be left behind.
Written on the Dark features in the following genres: Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Recommendations, Star Books, Action Adventure, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical fantasy, Fantasy, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: Diversity, equality, inclusion, Narrative theme: Love and relationships
Written on the Dark is available in Paperback, Hardback
Written on the Dark was written by Guy Gavriel Kay and published by Hodderscape
Written on the Dark has 320 pages
£22.50
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