Written on the Dark : From the bestselling author of the groundbreaking novels Tigana and under Heaven

'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 s