Where are the Kings
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Transworld Publishers Ltd
Publishing:13th Aug '26
£16.99
This title is due to be published on 13th August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
From the winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction and the Irish Book of the Year...
‘Beautiful, hilarious and completely gripping…a story filled with love that shines a light on all the hidden places’ RACHEL JOYCE
‘Donal Ryan uncovers the poetry that hides within ordinary life. He also conjures up characters so solid, so complete and authentic, it immediately feels as though you have known them for your entire life’ JOANNA CANNON
'Warm, irreverent and humane' JAN CARSON
Jack is just twelve years old when he rushes down the hill after his mother's car on his bike, desperate to reach her before she reaches the lake.
What happens next cannot be undone. Jack's life changes just at the moment he is entering those dizzying years when he will transition from boy to man; when nothing makes sense at the best of times.
Yet Jack is not alone. Enveloped as he is by his extended family - his ferociously loving Nana; Grandad, given to sudden bursts of rage; his earthy uncles Haulie and Theo who want to show him what it means to be a man, and the irascible JJ who resents him deeply. Then there is beautiful aunt Rose, whose mere presence ignites every atom in his changing body.
But how can a boy with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, understand the person he is becoming? Without his mother to ground him on the earth, will he spin off into the stars?
Beautiful, hilarious and completely gripping… I fell in love with the whole family, the sheer goodness of them, the way Donal Ryan gets inside Jack’s heart and head and explores the gap between them, what he knows and feels… a story filled with love that shines a light on all the hidden places. My life is better because of it. * Rachel Joyce, author of The Homemade God *
The arrival of a new Donal Ryan novel always feels like Christmas morning and Where are the Kings does not disappoint. It's a powerful meditation on boyhood, family and trauma, expertly couched in Ryan's devastating prose. Warm, irreverent and desperately humane this is a novel which manages to be timeless, current and prescient. * Jan Carson, author of Few & Far Between *
I have been a fan of Donal's writing for the longest time and the wonderful THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND was one of the first novels I reviewed for The Guardian. This novel though... oh my heart. To explore grief through the eyes of a child, and to do it so exquisitely and so elegantly, is just mind-blowing. The thing I LOVE about Donal Ryan's writing is that he uncovers the poetry that hides within ordinary life. He also conjures up characters so solid, so complete and authentic, it immediately feels as though you have known them for your entire life. * Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep *
You know when a book is so arresting, so captivating, that you have to actively seek a long time just to think about it – to luxuriate in the characters in all their charm and humour and sadness and confusion, a book that makes you look at the world differently, while at the same time cranking open your heart and letting the whole world pour in…We are the Kings. This is that book. * Annie Mac *
ISBN: 9780857529589
Dimensions: 222mm x 138mm x 25mm
Weight: 400g
224 pages