A Feast for Crows - Versione in INGLESE

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A Feast for Crows is the fourth of seven planned novels in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin. The novel was first published on 17 October 2005 in the United Kingdom, with a United States edition following on 8 November 2005.

In May 2005 Martin announced that the "sheer size" of his still-unfinished manuscript for A Feast for Crows had led him and his publishers to split the narrative into two books. Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, Martin opted to instead split the material by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters. A Feast for Crows was published months later, and the concurrent novel A Dance with Dragons is set to be released on July 12, 2011. Martin also noted that the A Song of Ice and Fire series would now likely total seven novels.

A Feast for Crows was the first novel in the sequence to debut at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list, a feat among fantasy writers only previously achieved by Robert Jordan and Neil Gaiman. In 2006 the novel was nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, and the British Fantasy Society Award.
Plot introduction
Set in a fictitious world reminiscent of Medieval Europe in which magic exists and the seasons can last for many decades, the Song of Ice and Fire series follows the violent dynastic struggles of an empire in turmoil. A Feast for Crows continues the events of A Storm of Swords (2000), the third novel in the series, and its plot runs concurrently with that of the forthcoming novel A Dance with Dragons.

Plot summary
The War of the Five Kings is coming to an end. Robb Stark, Joffrey Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, and Balon Greyjoy are all dead, and King Stannis Baratheon has gone to the aid of the Wall, where Jon Snow has become Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. King Tommen Baratheon, Joffrey's eight-year-old brother, now rules in King's Landing under the watchful eye of his mother, the Queen Regent Cersei Lannister. Cersei's father Tywin is dead, murdered by his son Tyrion, who has fled the city. With these two men gone, as well as no longer having to deal with Joffrey's homicidal insanity, there are no more checks on Cersei and she is essentially Ruling Queen of the Seven Kingdoms in all but name. Cersei has betrayed many men to their deaths in her pursuit of power: her late husband Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, Robb Stark, and the many innocents she allowed to die by enabling the insane Joffrey. Now that Cersei finally stands at the height of power and her enemies are scattered to the winds, in a grim irony it quickly becomes clear that she is incapable of wielding the power she has killed so many to acquire, and she spirals into self-destruction.
Meanwhile, Sansa Stark is still in hiding in the Vale, protected by Petyr Baelish, who has secretly murdered his wife Lysa Arryn and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn.

In the Seven Kingdoms[
King's LandingIt
soon becomes apparent that while Cersei is skilled in the methods of intrigue needed to seize power, she is not very skilled in the actual day-to-day running of the kingdom. Cersei's reign is marked by rampant cronyism as she tries to solidify her rule by staffing her councils with incompetent loyalists. Making matters worse is Cersei's increasing distrust of the Tyrells, particularly Margaery, who wed the new boy king Tommen after his brother Joffrey died at their wedding. Increasingly paranoid over a prophecy she believes foretells the deaths of her children and herself by the hands of her missing brother Tyrion, Cersei develops a dependency on alcohol. Her reign runs into problems from massive war debt, compounded by her incompetent administrators' inability to resolve the situation, which leads to a banking crisis that nearly cripples the economy of Westeros. To settle the crown's debts to the Faith of the Seven, she agrees to the restoration of that religion's military order, the Faith Militant. Cersei does not have the foresight to realize that this is only trading one problem for another, as now that the Faith has armed soldiers at its command it feels less compelled to accept her authority. A scheme to have the Faith put Margaery on trial for largely-invented accusations of adultery goes wrong when the newly-powerful religious leadership arrests and imprisons Cersei herself on similar (and accurate) charges.
Riverlands
Cersei's brother and ex-lover Jaime travels the Riverlands to re-establish order and royal control in the war-torn region. He has become somewhat estranged from his sister and newly concerned with his own honor, which he believes is tarnished by past misdeeds. He is also deeply disturbed about the state of the Kingsguard, with Cersei raising unworthy knights to the elite group. After ending the siege of Riverrun bloodlessly, one of the last holdouts against his family's authority, he receives word that Cersei wants him to return and defend her in a trial by battle. However, Jaime also receives news that as part of her political machinations, Cersei ordered Loras Tyrell to needlessly force a quick end to the siege of Stannis' forces on Dragonstone, in the hope that Loras would be killed. The island fortress fell in the resulting bloodbath, though Loras was horrifically burned by boiling oil during the siege and left clinging to life. Cersei had wanted Loras to die in order to lessen Tyrell influence at court, but then tactlessly gloated about Loras' horrific injury to his sister Margaery when she informed her about the battle. Ironically, rather than lessening the threat from the Tyrells, this action is specifically what drove Margaery Tyrell to actively pursue destroying Cersei, and the Tyrell-Lannister alliance is crumbling. This waste of loyal soldiers and arbitrary betrayal of Loras is the last straw for Jaime, who burns and apparently ignores Cersei's letter.
Brienne of Tarth's quest for Sansa leads her all over the Riverlands, where she observes the devastation and villainy that the war has wrought among the smallfolk. She notices a boy following her only to discover that it's Podrick Payne, squire to The Imp. Since he's had no real training as a squire, she agrees to teach him promising to send him to bed with blisters and bruises every night. She also meets up with Ser Hyle, a knight from her past who was with her and King Renly before he was murdered. He believes that she did not kill Renly and he follows her, Pod, and Nimble Dick. He witnesses her battle prowess as she confronts three outlaws. She also meets up with Lord Tarly(Samwell Tarly's father), who despises her and insults her despite Ser Hyle's praise of her battle prowess. Eventually she is captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners, she is sentenced to death by Stoneheart (her former ally, now corpse-like Catelyn Stark), who wrongly believes Brienne has betrayed her. Brienne is told she will be allowed to live if she agrees to find and kill Jaime Lannister; refusing, she and some of her companions are hanged, and as the nooses strangle them she screams out one as-yet unrevealed word.

The Eyrie
In the Eyrie, Sansa poses as Petyr's bastard daughter Alayne, befriending young Robert Arryn, managing the household for her "father," and receiving informal training in royal politics from him. During this time, Petyr appears to be carefully manipulating his murdered wife's former bannermen, and his once precarious hold on the Protectorship Vale is beginning to seem less tenuous. He eventually reveals that he has betrothed Sansa to Harrold Hardyng, Robert's heir; when the sickly Robert dies, Sansa will reveal her true identity, and reclaim her family stronghold of Winterfell.

Iron Islands
On the Iron Islands, Aeron Damphair calls a Kingsmoot in order to decide who would succeed Balon Greyjoy as king of the Iron Islands. Hotly contested by Victarion Greyjoy and Asha Greyjoy, eventually Euron Greyjoy, the exiled "Crow's Eye" is chosen king due to his promise that he can summon dragons that will help the islanders conquer all of Westeros. The fleet of the Iron men attack and capture the Shield Islands at the mouth of the River Mander, threatening Highgarden. He then sends his brother Victarion east to woo Daenerys Targaryen on his behalf, but a bitter Victarion instead plans to marry her himself.
Dorne
In Dorne, Doran is confronted by three of his brother's Sand Snakes, who all want justice for his death. They are not appeased by the prospect of receiving the head of Gregor Clegane because it was being paid with their own coin since they all knew The Viper of Dorne poisoned the spear they dueled with. They all wanted war, but in a different manner. They were riling the commonfolk so he had all eight of them confined in cells in a Tower, even the very young ones so that no one can try to use them against him.
A bold attempt by Arianne Martell who seduced Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard, to crown Myrcella Baratheon as queen of Westeros under Dornish law is thwarted by Arianne's own, presumed weak, father Doran. The attempt has also left Myrcella's face scarred, and resulted in the death of Ser Oakheart, straining the new allegiance with House Lannister and the Iron Throne, even as a member of the Kingsguard is on his way to Dorne with the head of Gregor Clegane, the knight blamed for and admitted to the murder and rape of Doran's sister Elia years before. Though angry with his Arianne, Doran reveals to her that he has long had his own subtler plan for vengeance; her brother Quentyn has gone east to bring back "Fire and blood."

In the East
Samwell Tarly is sent to the Citadel in Oldtown for training to become the new Maester for the Night's Watch and to learn what the Maesters know of the Others. Accompanied by Maester Aemon, Dareon (another man of the Night's Watch), the wildling girl Gilly and her son. Some questions arise for Sam during the trip regarding some of the decisions and changes the newly appointed Lord Snow has made, to which Maester Aemon replies that the change happened when Sam raised him to Lord Commander. They travel to Braavos, where Aemon's ill health causes them to miss their boat and Dareon abandons their mission then ends up getting punched by Sam when he's confronted in a brothel. Although he does not know it, Sam has a brief run in with the "Cat of the Canals". Sam, Aemon, and Gilly eventually resume their voyage to Oldtown, but en route Aemon dies and Sam and Gilly become lovers. Before his death, Aemon hears about Daenerys and her dragons, and tells Sam that the Citadel must send a Maester to counsel her, as she is the promised savior of mankind. Finally, at Oldtown, Sam becomes a novice, and a Maester leaves to offer counsel to Daenerys.
Arriving in Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the House of Black and White, a temple associated with the assassins known as the Faceless Men. As a novice there, Arya attempts to master their belief that Faceless Men have no true identity by both throwing all her treasures into the water (except Needle) and posing as a girl named "Cat of the Canals" to learn the language. Each black moon she has to serve and tells the kindly man three new words and three new things. However, her former identity somewhat asserts itself when she continues to have wolf dreams and also kills Dareon on principle for abandoning the Night's Watch (which anywhere on Westeros is punishable by death) and abandoning his sworn brother, Samwell Tarly, although she doesn't know Sam's a friend of her brother Jon. The morning after her return to the House of Black and White following this murder, she admits that it was "Arya" who committed it, and is therefore given a glass of warm milk meant for "Arya" as punishment. After drinking, she wakes up blind the following morning.