Written on the Dark

‘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