Io, Lettore

Guy Gavriel Kay - Ysabel
(never published in Italy)

"Never again will a single story be told as though it were the only one"

I can't be totally fair about this book. First, because it's my first Kay reading after "The Fionavar Tapestry", and I LOVE that trilogy. Deeply. Second, is quite the same reason: you can find in "Ysabel" two "Fionavar"'s characters, Kimberly Ford and Dave Martyniuk. And I loved them DEEPLY (but was there a character I didn't love that way in Fionavar? Maybe the villain. Yeah, maybe).
But I think that don't be able to stop reading something is usually a sign of how good a book is. And this is NO love story (even if love is the main fuel for all the action).
I think also that "Fionavar" was best, more complete written. "Ysabel" writings is light and funny and I really loved it, but sometimes I felt like something was missed. Maybe it was the "mostly dialogues" thing :)

Btw, the story is about a normal teenager from Montreal, Ned, having to spend his summer in Provence because in father is a world-wide-known photographer and his mother is in Sudan with "Medecins sans frontieres". He meets an American girl in a cathedral. But that's just the beginning, because they'll meet someone else, someone who clearly doesn't belong to this world. Then there're magic, mysteries, Celtic tales, impossible loves, Provence and much much more. To save someone he cares for, Ned'll have to learn WHY and HOW he's special, and how to find her.

As "Fionavar" was, this is a deeply bittersweet book.

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