"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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'Kay is a genius. I've read him all my life and am always inspired by his work' BRANDON SANDERSON
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.
PRAISE FOR GUY GAVRIEL KAY'S NOVELS
'Tragic, stirring, romantic, meticulous, comic, rueful, worldly-wise, and written in the intimate, deceptively nonchalant voice of a storyteller offering up his great gift' MICHAEL CHABON
'Kay is a genius. I've read him all my life and am always inspired by his work' BRANDON SANDERSON
'A wonderful talent. He tells stories in an invented world that is so rich in historical echoes that I found myself smiling with pleasure as I heard the echoes, while engrossed in the story. Warmly recommended' EDWARD RUTHERFORD
'History and fantasy rarely come together as gracefully or readably as they do in the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay' THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
'By making the familiar ever so slightly strange, Guy Gavriel Kay breathes new life into historical fantasy. Beautifully faceted, jewel-like scenes carry us beyond the doublets and daggers to create an emotionally charged, high-stakes world of love and hate, threat and reward' DAILY MAIL
'An immersive reading experience; readers will taste the dust in their mouths, see the high seas from the deck of a merchant ship, feel the bustle of the city market. What results is necessary sustenance for the starving reader. A masterpiece from a master of the craft' BOOKLIST
'Gorgeous, generous, humane and deeply aware of the intricacies of human desire and attachment, All the Seas of the World is another masterpiece from Kay' JAMES BRADLEY
'I came away from it with spirits lifted and a smile on my face, whilst feeling a wistful sense of regret that the reading experience was over. You can't ask more from a book than that' PARSEC
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 an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton
Written on the Dark has 320 pages
£9.89
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