Tigana is Guy
Gavriel Kay's high fantasy take on 16th century Italy. The culturally
consistent peninsula of Palm is split into nine sovereign dukedoms
constantly involved in petty warfare. The peninsula is simultaneously
attacked by invading armies from both west and east, and completely
overrun.
With the backdrop of the subterfuge against the occupying sorcerors is developed a tragedy of memory, both by being too stuck in the past and by having a memory completely eradicated.
The novel has viewpoint characters on both sides of the political conflict. I suspect Tigana might be a significant source of ideas for narrative structure for George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, where there are even more viewpoint characters and which is also strongly cryptohistorical. Also like the Song, no clear dichotomy between good and evil is described by the narrator—although by some characters it is.
Category: Fantasy/cryptohistory. Recommendation: read.