b>International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay's latest
work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and
offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come
together through destiny, love, and ambition.
In
a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime
city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who
shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to
a renowned school even though he was only the son of a
tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count—and
soon learned why that man was known as the
Beast.
Danio's fate changed the moment he saw and
recognized Adria Ripoli as she entered the count's chambers
one autumn night—intending to kill. Born to power, Adria had
chosen, instead of a life of comfort, one of danger—and
freedom. Which is how she encounters Danio in a perilous
time and place.
Vivid figures share the unfolding
story. Among them: a healer determined to defy her expected
lot; a charming, frivolous son of immense wealth; a powerful
religious leader more decadent than devout; and, affecting
all these lives and many more, two larger-than-life
mercenary commanders, lifelong adversaries, whose rivalry
puts a world in the balance.
A Brightness Long
Ago offers both compelling drama and deeply moving
reflections on the nature of memory, the choices we make in
life, and the role played by the turning of Fortune's wheel.