Why did I love this book?
The longer you write fiction, the harder it becomes to ignore its mechanics and get swept away in a story.
But KA swept me away and right off a cliff. Mostly known among writers for his novel Little, Big, John Crowley's KA is a shining opus that reflects back humanity's relationship with stories through the eyes of Dar Oakley, a crow whose life, destiny, and very nature becomes entangled with those of the story-telling humans who fascinate him.
KA is a sprawling, slow-burn of a novel, starting with Crowley's detailed portrait of crow culture and morphing into the multi-part tale of Dar Oakley's transformation from an ordinary crow into a being who has seen too much.
For every reader who has ever felt like Dar Oakley—the accidental star of a story who becomes trapped by it, uncertain how to get out—this one's for you.
2 authors picked Ka as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
“Ka is a beautiful, often dreamlike late masterpiece.” —Los Angeles Times
“One of our country’s absolutely finest novelists.” —Peter Straub, New York Times bestselling author of Interior Darkness and Ghost Story
From award-winning author John Crowley comes an exquisite fantasy novel about a man who tells the story of a crow named Dar Oakley and his impossible lives and deaths in the land of Ka.
A Crow alone is no Crow.
Dar Oakley—the first Crow in all of history with a name of his own—was born two thousand years ago. When a man learns his language, Dar finally gets the…