BOOK CLUB Academiae Obscuriae – “Katabasis”

The Academiae Obscuriae Book Club is descending into the underworld, and this time we’re taking the whole academy with us. Our next meeting is dedicated to Katabasis, by R. F. Kuang, a dark academia novel about ambition, obsession and the price of a recommendation letter.

Set at Cambridge in a world where magic is an academic discipline, the story follows Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, two brilliant and fiercely competitive doctoral students. When their formidable advisor dies in a magical accident, the two make an extraordinary decision: to travel into Hell itself to bring him back. Their journey, which draws on the long literary tradition of the descent to the underworld (the katabasis of the title), forces them to confront their rivalry, their guilt and the true cost of their academic ambitions.

Part satire of academia’s toxic culture, part fantasy quest, Katabasis invites us to talk about the pressure to succeed, mentorship and exploitation, rivalry and intimacy, and what we are willing to sacrifice for recognition and the approval of those we admire.