aixcentric

I have to admit to not being a reader of fantasy fiction, but I really enjoyed ‘Ysabel’ by Guy Gavriel Kay, the Canadian novelist.  I wonder if its setting in Aix made me so mesmerised with this story?

Written back in 2007, it starts in Aix Cathedral where a 15 year old boy, Ned, wanders in and meets Kate Wenger, an American exchange student with a passion for ancient history and an extensive knowledge of the cathedral’s past. A strange and nameless man warns them to leave immediately, stating that they “have blundered into the corner of a very old story”. Kay’s narrative moves between modern and ancient Provence bringing in Celtic tribes, Roman legions and fights played out on the Sainte-Victoire.

To research and write the novel, the author lived  in Aix four times, and will be back in November as part of his 12 day book tour in France for his French publisher, L’Atalante. His most recent book released in France, Le Fleuve Céleste (River of Stars), won the Prix Elbakin last month, and his publishers have just reprinted an earlier, much-loved title, Les Lions d’Al-Rassan (one of the titles he wrote in Aix) with a new cover.

Meet the Author: Kay will be signing many of his novels, and chatting with book-lovers at Librairie Goulard on the Cours Mirabeau at 17:00 on November 11th.