Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Bestselling author Rebecca F Kuang aka R F Kuang’s sixth novel Katabasis hits the shelves on August 26.
The fantasy book tells the story of two rivalling doctoral candidate magicians, Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, who must venture into hell to save their thesis adviser, Professor Jacob Grimes, in order to get letters of recommendation.
A katabasis or catabasis is a journey to the underworld.
In an interview, Rebecca said that she worked on the novel while studying for her PhD in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale University, adding that she has also written all her previous works while studying.
“I never left academia and always wanted to be a professor,” she said.
“I love teaching, I love being in the classroom so, those have just been dual career paths that I’ve stuck to since I was 19,” the 29-year-old added.
The creative talent is widely known for her Chinese military fantasy trilogy The Poppy War, which marked her debut in 2018.
The writer’s accolades include her 2022 alternative history novel Babel taking the first spot on The New York Times Bestseller list, as well as winning the Nebula Award for the best novel that same year.
A television series based on her 2023 satirical novel, Yellowface, is currently in the works, with Taiwanese actress Constance Wu (of Crazy Rich Asians fame) as a producer.
