{"product_id":"r-f-kuang-katabasis","title":"Katabasis: From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of BABEL and YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang","description":"\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKatabasis\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eWhen Cambridge doctoral candidate Alice Law learns her mentor has died—and worse, been consigned to Hell—she makes a desperate bargain: half her remaining life in exchange for passage into the underworld to retrieve him. But she won't be going alone. Peter Murdoch, her brilliant, infuriating academic rival, crashes her pentagram and demands to join her, stakes be damned.\u003cspan class=\"citation-nbsp\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation inline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" class=\"inline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sparknotesai.com\/books\/ca4b8c16-83d2-419d-9fc6-131895e752b6\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eWhat follows is a stunning descent through Hell as imagined by R.F. Kuang: not fires and brimstone, but bureaucratic nightmare logic, philosophical trials, and the Seven Deadly Sins reimagined as courts that judge the soul. As Alice and Peter navigate this twisted underworld—where knowledge is seductive trap as much as salvation, where ambition and guilt twist the mind, where ancient paradoxes become survival tools—they must confront dark secrets about their mentor, about each other, and about what they're truly willing to sacrifice.\u003cspan class=\"citation-nbsp\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation inline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" class=\"inline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/books\/story\/2025-08-22\/katabasis-review-rf-kuang-dark-academia-thriller\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"my-2 [\u0026amp;+p]:mt-4 [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [\u0026amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"\u003eAt its heart, \u003cem\u003eKatabasis\u003c\/em\u003e is an enemies-to-lovers dark academia fantasy that cuts to the bone about academic exploitation and the desperate hunger for approval. At 560 pages, it's a richly layered, intellectually ambitious novel that will appeal to readers who loved Kuang's \u003cem\u003eYellowface\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eBabel\u003c\/em\u003e—and to anyone who has ever felt the peculiar hell of competitive, high-stakes academia.\u003cspan class=\"citation-nbsp\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"citation inline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" class=\"inline\" href=\"https:\/\/thecozyowlet.com\/through-hell-and-back-on-katabasis-academia-and-the-hope-of-connection\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Literary Cat Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52790136439048,"sku":"9780008501860","price":20.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0967\/7688\/0392\/files\/9780008501860.jpg?v=1762967660","url":"https:\/\/literarycatbooks.myshopify.com\/products\/r-f-kuang-katabasis","provider":"Literary Cat Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}