"Kay is a masterful storyteller."
—The Gazette (Montreal)

From the bestselling author of Under Heaven comes an epic of prideful emperors, battling courtiers, nomadic invasions, and of a woman fighting to find her place in the world.

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later, and his life changes again, dramatically, as he moves toward the court and emperor while war approaches Kitai from the north.

Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended between two worlds. Her intelligence captivates an emperor and alienates the women at court. But when her father's life is endangered by the savage politics of the day, Shan must act in ways no woman ever has.

In an empire divided by bitter factions circling an exquisitely cultured emperor who loves his gardens and his art far more than the burdens of governing, dramatic events on the northern steppe alter the balance of power in the world, leading, under the river of stars, to events no one could have foretold.

"Kay is a genius. I've read him all of my life and am always inspired by his work. You will love Under Heaven."
—Brandon Sanderson, New York Times Bestselling Author

Inspired by the glory of Tang Dynasty China in the eighth century, Guy Gavriel Kay melds history and the fantastic into something both powerful and emotionally compelling. Under Heaven is a novel on the grandest narrative scale, encompassing the intimate details of individual lives in an unforgettable time and place.

Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in that empire's last war against their western enemies from Tagur, twenty years before. Forty thousand men on both sides were slain beside a remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has died recently. To honour his father's memory, Tai has spent two years of official mourning alone at the battle site among the ghosts of the dead, laying to rest their unburied bones.

One spring morning, he learns that others have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess in Tagur is pleased to present him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, given, she writes, in recognition of his courage, and honour done to the dead.

You gave a man one of the famed Sardians to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal.

Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor. Tai starts east towards the glittering, dangerous imperial capital and gathers his wits for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to his own forever-altered life.

Archived News

Under Heaven has won Sunburst Award, for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.

Nominated in the Best Novel category at the World Fantasy Awards.

Under Heaven was nominated for an Aurora Award, for best SF/Fantasy Novel.  Awarded June 2011.

Under Heaven was nominated for the 2011 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.

Fantasy Faction website - The World of Guy Gavriel Kay — March 16th, 2011.

The American Library Association picked Under Heaven as the best fantasy novel of 2010, naming it to their 2011 Reading List.
Click here for details.

GGK was interviewed by CBC News for The National on the future of fantasy — July 27th, 2011.

Under Heaven made Fantasy Literature's best of the year list (2010) for both the printed book itself and Simon Vance's reading of the audio version.
Read the details here.

In its year-end catalogue sent to members, the Science Fiction Book Club announced UNDER HEAVEN as its Editors' Pick Book of the Year (2010).

The Globe & Mail listed Under Heaven among the top book of 2010.

The Romantic Times nominated Under Heaven for Best Fantasy Novel of 2010.

Under Heaven was chosen as one of the Washington Post's 'Best Fiction and Poetry of 2010' picks.

Fantastic profile on Guy Gavriel Kay in the New Zealand Herald
 
Under Heaven receives rave review on Bookslut.com
 
Guy Gavriel Kay guest blogs for BSC Review
 

"Kay at his finest .. Mythic ... Compelling ... Splendid."
—The Globe and Mail

In today's world, the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral of Aix-en-Provence is an ancient structure. Complex and full of secrets, it is a perfect monument for a celebrated photographer to shoot, and for his teenaged son, Ned Marriner, to wander through while his father works.

But the roads of Provence were once walked by Celtic tribes and Roman legions and have seen centuries of warfare. The past is very much alive in Provence, and on one holy, haunted night of the year, when the borders between the living and the dead are down and fires are lit upon the hills, Ned finds himself drawn into a very old story playing itself out in the modern world—a story in which dangerous, mythic figures of long ago erupt into the present, claiming and altering lives.

The first contemporary novel from Guy Gavriel Kay, Ysabel is a tour de force, a haunted tale set in a sublime and ancient part of the world.

"Historical fantasy of the highest order. The work of a man who may well be the reigning master of the form."
—The Washington Post

For generations, the Erlings of Vinmark have taken their dragon-prowed ships across the seas, raiding the lands of less violent, warlike people, leaving fire and death behind. But times change, even in the hard north, and in a tale woven with consummate artistry, people of three cultures find the threads of their lives unexpectedly entwined.

Making brilliant use of saga, song, and chronicle, Guy Gavriel Kay brings to life an unforgettable world balanced on the knife-edge of change.

The Sarantine Mosaic

"Confirms, yet again, Kay's status as one of our most accomplished and engaging storytellers."
—Toronto Star

Sarantium is the imperial city: jewel of the world, heart of an empire. Artisan Caius Crispus has received a summons from the emperor and reluctantly embarks on the long journey east toward the golden city. But before Crispin can reach Sarantium, with its taverns and gilded sanctuaries, chariot races and palaces, he must pass through a land of pagan ritual and mysterious danger. Marked by a brush with the half-world and a promise to the queen of a failing monarchy, Crispin's arrival at the imperial court will not be a quiet one.

In the first volume of the brilliant Sarantine Mosaic, Guy Gavriel Kay weaves an utterly compelling story of the allure and intrigue of a magnificent city and the people drawn into its spell.

The Sarantine Mosaic

"Powerfully written and compulsively readable."
—Maclean's

Sarantium is the golden city: holy to the faithful, jewel of the world. The western mosaicist Crispin has arrived in the imperial city. Prepared to confront the challenges of his art high on the scaffolding of destiny, he discovers that no one can withdraw from the dangerous intrigues of court and city. Nor can he forget the presence of the half-world or ignore its possible significance to treachery. Rustem of Kerakek, a physician from the east, also finds his way to Sarantium, only to find that his own fate is not simply that of a healer.

In this concluding volume of the Sarantine Mosaic, Guy Gavriel Kay brilliantly merges his homage to Byzantine adventure with a deeply moving meditation on art and power, and the eternal human struggle to leave a legacy.

"Sweeping, complex and haunting ... A beautifully wrought, elegantly written adventure."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Home to three very different cultures, Al-Rassan is a land of seductive beauty and violent history. Peace among the Jaddites, Asharites, and Kindath is a precarious, elusive thing, made so by the ever-present shadow that divides the people as a whole but draws extraordinary individuals together. Ammar ibn Khairan–poet, diplomat, soldier—Rodrigo Belmonte—accomplished military leader—and Jeanne bet Ishak—brilliant physician—find their lives interwoven by a series of remarkable events that take Al-Rassan to the brink of war.

Hauntingly evocative of medieval Spain, The Lions of Al-Rassan is an exhilarating story of love, divided loyalties, and what happens to men and women when passionate beliefs conspire to remake—or destroy—a world.

"Elegant, sweeping and colorful ... one of those books you wish would never end."
—San Francisco Chronicle

Arbonne and Gorhaut—two lands as different as the sun and the shadowed moon.

In the south, the olive trees and vineyards of Arbonne flourish, and the troubadours fill the air with songs of love and desire. To the north, the history of harsh Gorhaut has been forged with blood and fire, and now a corrupt king and his ruthless advisor seek to conquer the warm, fertile lands of Arbonne. The troubadours and courtiers of the south are soft—or so they appear. But for all their devotion to music and passion for beauty, the people of Arbonne will fight when invasion comes.

Inspired by the glorious world of the troubadours, A Song for Arbonne is Guy Gavriel Kay's love song to medieval Provence.

"Tigana is a novel and a world to lose yourself in ... Powerful and moving." —Toronto Star

Tigana is the celebrated epic of a beleaguered country struggling to be free. It is the tale of a people so cursed by the dark sorceries of the tyrant king Brandin that even the very name of their once beautiful home cannot be spoken or remembered. And yet, years after their homeland's devastation, a handful of men and women set in motion a dangerous crusade—to overthrow their conquerors and bring back into the world the lost brightness of an obliterated name: Tigana.

Often described as the greatest single-volume fantasy novel ever written, Tigana brilliantly uses elements of fantasy to explore powerful themes of lost culture and identity.

Selected Poems

Before Guy Gavriel Kay became known for his groundbreaking works of speculative fiction, establishing himself as one of the world's most respected writers in that genre, he was an accomplished poet, his work appearing in major literary journals such as The Antigonish Review and Prism. Through the years, while writing his dramatic international bestsellers, Kay has continued to quietly explore the paths and boundaries of poetry as well.

Now for the first time, Guy Gavriel Kay's poetry has been gathered and selected for publication. For those familiar with his fiction, the poems in Beyond This Dark House will resonate for their linguistic and emotional nuances and their mythological allusions, echoing and illuminating themes of his fiction.

But readers of contemporary poetry will also be captivated by the exquisite craft and power of these poems. Some are ironic and austere, slyly tracing the interplay of writer and world, present and past; others are sensual, even erotic, charting the mercurial but abiding nature of passion-in love, in language, in history.