Katabasis

“Prepare for one hell of a journey…R.F. Kuang is making magic” - ELLE
“A big, bold fantasy romp” GUARDIAN
“A truly original and spellbinding hero's-journey story” - VOGUE
“I devoured it” - RED One of the BBC's 25 best books of 2025 Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek.
The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magic. But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together. That’s if they can agree on anything. Will they triumph, or kill each other trying? 2025’s most unexpected love story is going to be hell in the new No.1 Sunday Times bestselling novel by R.F. Kuang.

Product Details

Format: Paperback | 576 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 9780008501907
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 21 May 2026
Category: Fantasy Romance
Author: R.F. Kuang