Description

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

Paperback – Vintage – July 2025 – 559 pages

“You must be as sharp as a stiletto and as subtle as a fish beneath the waters. This is what it is to be Navolese, this is what it is to be di Regulai.”

In the bustling city-state of Navola, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family has nurtured their merchant-banking empire. Though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth buys cities and topples kingdoms, and no one obstructs them twice.
Soon, Davico di Regulai, sole heir to the di Regulai fortune, must take his place beside his father and prove himself worthy of his name. But Davico’s heart is soft where it should be hard. He prefers sunlit hills and green-dappled forests to the shadowy plots of his family. And something else beckons him. A fossil dragon eye, an ancient relic of raw power that sits upon his father’s desk. A thing that should be dead, and yet calls to Davico with increasing hunger.
As plots unfold, armies march, and assassins slip down shadowy marble halls, Davico will be tested past his limits. His survival will depend upon the powers locked within the dragon eye and upon feelings hidden deep in the heart of his beloved adoptive sister, Celia—a girl wise in the twisted ways of Navolese politics, for her own family was destroyed by them.