Tigana

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There is also a French-Malian football (soccer) player and manager named Jean Tigana

Tigana (1990) is a fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay, set in a fictional country, the Peninsula of the Palm, that somewhat resembles medieval Italy as well as the Peloponnesos in shape.

Though the Palm shares a common culture and language, it is, like medieval Italy, not a unified nation, comprising instead nine provinces with a long history of internecine struggle (in alphabetical order, the provinces are: Asoli, Astibar, Certando, Chiara, Corte, Ferraut, Senzio, Tigana, and Tregea). This internal conflict facilitates the conquest of the region by two powerful sorcerers: Brandin, the King of Ygrath, is one; the other, Alberico, is an independent warlord from the empire of Barbadior. The two sorcerers have divided the peninsula in an uneasy balance of power.

The plot focuses on a group of rebels attempting to overthrow both tyrants and win back their homeland. Many of the rebels are natives of the province of Tigana, which was the province that most ably resisted Brandin: In a crucial battle, Brandin's son was killed. In retaliation for this, Brandin attacked Tigana and crushed it more savagely than any other part of the Palm; then, following this victory, he used his magic to remove the name and history of Tigana from the minds of the population.

Only those born in Tigana before the invasion can hear or speak its name, or remember it as it was; as far as everyone else is concerned, that area of the country has always been an insignificant part of a neighbouring province, hence the rebels are battling for the very soul of their country.

The book puts great emphasis on the different moral shades of people. Though seen by most of the characters as a ruthless, grief-maddened tyrant, Brandin is actually a very sympathetic character, especially in his love for Dianora, one of the women of his harem -- a character who is in fact from Tigana herself and engineered her own selection into Brandin's seraglio so that she could assassinate him, only to fall in love with him before she could. Despite being equally likeable and sympathetic, many of the rebels are equally ruthless in their attempts to overthrow the Tyrants, setting off wars, assassinating soldiers and officials and even committing suicide to depose Brandin. All the main characters are very complex.

The book is full of themes of identity, love, patriotism, revenge and magic.

[edit] Riselka

The riselka is a recurring theme in the book. Based on the rusalka of Slavic folklore and mythology, its appearance in Kay's world is a token of some portent. A portion of it reads as follows:

One man sees a riselka

his life forks there.

Two men see a riselka

one of them shall die.

Three men see a riselka

one is blessed, one forks, one shall die.

One woman sees a riselka

her path comes clear to her.

Two women see a riselka

one of them shall bear a child.

Three women see a riselka

one is blessed, one is clear, one shall bear a child.

[edit] Trivia

Kay admits[1] that the province of Tigana, and thus the book, was inadvertently named after the soccer player Jean Tigana. As a result, the Italian edition of the novel uses the name Tigane instead.