View audiobook of Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

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Katabasis

A Novel

by R. F. Kuang

Length 18 hours 34 minutes

Language English

Narrators Morag Sims & Will Watt

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Bookseller recommendation

“RF Kuang writes another masterpiece; it was smart, clever, and thought-provoking! Incredible! ”
— Sarah • For the Reader

Bookseller recommendation

“This reader will follow R.F. Kuang anywhere, even to Hell and (hopefully) back, hot on the heels of two rival Cambridge students who must bring their advisor back from the dead to graduate. Katabasis is the ultimate dark academia fantasy about the denial of the flesh, hellish demands, and deals with the devil it can take to ascend the ivory tower, to live “the life of the mind”—but above all, a romantic revelation about what really makes life magical. ”
— Megan • Underground Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Are you reading this yet? No?? What’s the holdup? Brilliant. Funny. Intense. Shocking. Alchemy. Get it now! ”
— Shawna • Persnickety Books

Bookseller recommendation

“I had high hopes for this, and they were fulfilled! The label "dark academia" doesn't really do this justice--this is literary fantasy made by and for those who love learning, replete with logic principles, ancient mythology, and mathematics. Worth every minute. ”
— Sophia • Bank Square Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Getting your PhD can be hell - literally. Katabasis is a classically inspired romp through the afterlife, full of intrigue and wit. Kuang continues in her mastery of dark academia, refusing to shy away from toxicity and sacrifice in the upper echelon of university culture. From the very first expertly crafted page, Alice and Peter shine among the rich prose exploring millennia of human ingenuity and thought. What follows is a world built on paradoxes and philosophy, making meaning out of the impossible and finding resilience in the hopeless cosmos. A full college course worth of intellectual exploration and a story brimming with heart wrapped into one incandescent novel. ”
— Maggie • Quail Ridge Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Only R.F. Kuang could make a trip to hell to save your thesis advisor feel both hilarious and profound. A fiery mix of philosophy, myth, and academic anxiety—wow indeed.”
— Mike • A Great Good Place for Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Absolutely loved this book. I am a sucker for anything that involves a sojourn to hell and back. You mix dark academia into it, yes. Chef's kiss. Kuang really outdid herself. Two magic students believe they killed their professor and that they need him desperately to graduate. Cue chaos. I can not recommend this book enough! ”
— Elise • The Yakima Book Co & The Traveling Book Bus

Bookseller recommendation

“Fantastic journey, excellent payoff”
— Jared • Meadow Market Books

Bookseller recommendation

“As the title suggests, this book is an excellent example of katabasis- the descent into the underworld. With solid reflection following each level of tension, Kuang puts each character's humanity on full display, challenging what drives us to succeed. Well balanced with character development and plot progression, this book was a harrowing yet transformative journey.”
— Mackenzie • Bookbug

Bookseller recommendation

“An epic journey through dark academia and through hell! This was a beautiful story about being human and it will become an instant classic.”
— Leslie • The Cozy Book Nook

Summary
About the author

#36 in Bestselling Audiobooks #4 in Bestselling Mystery & Thriller Audiobooks

Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

Fiction Mystery & Thriller Historical Fiction Fantasy

Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, Yellowface, and Katabasis. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.