Below is Penguin’s catalogue copy introducing the book, and a copy of the very evocative cover. The cover was designed by Cathy MacLean, and features the image of Demeter and Persephone from the Getty Museum in California laid over a beach-seascape. Click on the cover to see a larger image:
A remarkable collection of poetry from one of Canada’s foremost novelists
Beyond This Dark House
Guy Gavriel Kay
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.
Guy Gavriel Kay is the internationally bestselling author of The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road (which comprise The Fionavar Tapestry), Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan and The Sarantine Mosaic, which is comprised of Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. His work has been translated into nineteen languages. He is the two-time winner of the Aurora Award and a four-time World Fantasy Award nominee. Guy Gavriel Kay lives in Toronto.