The Narrow Road Between Desires

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

The Narrow Road Between Desires takes place in Temerant, the fantasy world of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Kingkiller Chronicle series. The novella’s central figure, Bast, is the Fae companion and apprentice of the series’ protagonist, Kvothe. Both characters make their first appearance in Rothfuss’s debut novel, The Name of the Wind (2007). The Kingkiller Chronicle novels employ a frame narrative. In Kvothe’s present, he has retired from adventuring and is an innkeeper using the alias Kote. At the prompting of Bast and a scribe called Chronicler, he shares his life story, including his early years in a traveling theater troupe, his family’s murders by supernatural beings called the Chandrian, and his adventures during his time as a student of magic at the University. Kvothe continues to share his tale in The Wise Man’s Fear (2011). Like each of the two novels, The Narrow Road Between Desires takes place over the course of a single day in the rural town of Newarre. The novels are set in late autumn, and the novella is set on Midsummer Day, meaning that the novella takes place before Chronicler arrives and Kvothe begins unfolding his life story.