Where Are the Kings
A Novel
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Where Are the Kings
Narrated by:
Donal Ryan
Pre-order Now for £11.56
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Narrated by:
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Donal Ryan
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By:
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Donal Ryan
Jack is just eleven years old when he bikes furiously down the hill after his mother’s car, desperate to reach her before she reaches the lake. What happens next cannot be undone.
Jack’s life changes forever just as he enters those pivotal years when he will transition from boy to man, when nothing makes sense at the best of times. Suddenly he is thrust into a family he’s never known: his mother’s parents, ferocious Nana and temperamental Grandad; her brothers, his gruff uncles Haulie and Theo and the irascible JJ, who’s young enough to be Jack’s cousin; and her sister Rose, whose mere presence ignites every atom in his changing body. Yet this big, chaotic, loveable family is hiding something from Jack—something about the mother who disappeared into the lake and the father who was institutionalized after her death. 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 earth, will Jack spin off into the stars?
A heartbreaking, wisecracking ode to family and the complexity of love, this novel is Donal Ryan’s most powerful and beautifully written story yet.
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Critic reviews
Advance praise for Where Are the Kings:
“Where Are the Kings . . . cements [Donal Ryan's] place among the best Irish authors. . . . Ryan has a talent for creating characters that readers care deeply about . . . Told with warmth and heart, this slim but emotionally deep novel is touching and one you can’t help but be moved by.” —Good Housekeeping
“All the characters are richly and idiosyncratically drawn. . . . The writing . . . recalls James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. . . . Ryan offers a vivid and engaging account of Jack's life in the bustling rural household.” —The Spectator
“A new Donal Ryan novel is always something to anticipate keenly and there is nothing to disappoint in the marvellous coming-of-age tale Where Are the Kings . . . A novel that has so much to say about how emotions fester, sibling jealousy, the weightlessness and formlessness of guilt, and the sudden healing power of ‘a deluge of love.’” —The Independent
“We absolutely loved [Where Are the Kings]! Donal is such a lyrical writer—such a wonderful storyteller—and this book feels like his most accessible yet! Sad, but uplifting—and just so readable.” —Joe Haddow, BBC Radio 2
“Vivacious, likeable characters from [a] rural, working-class community . . . This is a complicated family dealing with its own secrets and lies, but grounded by a basic sense of decency and compassion.” —Times Literary Supplement
“A marvellous study of the mind in crisis.” —Literary Review
“Where Are the Kings is a brilliant, quietly devastating exploration of the fledgling heart. Tender, funny, mysterious and hopeful, it’s a flawless gem about the imperfect yet profound ways in which families love, and what that love costs.” —M. L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans
“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
“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
“Where Are the Kings . . . cements [Donal Ryan's] place among the best Irish authors. . . . Ryan has a talent for creating characters that readers care deeply about . . . Told with warmth and heart, this slim but emotionally deep novel is touching and one you can’t help but be moved by.” —Good Housekeeping
“All the characters are richly and idiosyncratically drawn. . . . The writing . . . recalls James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. . . . Ryan offers a vivid and engaging account of Jack's life in the bustling rural household.” —The Spectator
“A new Donal Ryan novel is always something to anticipate keenly and there is nothing to disappoint in the marvellous coming-of-age tale Where Are the Kings . . . A novel that has so much to say about how emotions fester, sibling jealousy, the weightlessness and formlessness of guilt, and the sudden healing power of ‘a deluge of love.’” —The Independent
“We absolutely loved [Where Are the Kings]! Donal is such a lyrical writer—such a wonderful storyteller—and this book feels like his most accessible yet! Sad, but uplifting—and just so readable.” —Joe Haddow, BBC Radio 2
“Vivacious, likeable characters from [a] rural, working-class community . . . This is a complicated family dealing with its own secrets and lies, but grounded by a basic sense of decency and compassion.” —Times Literary Supplement
“A marvellous study of the mind in crisis.” —Literary Review
“Where Are the Kings is a brilliant, quietly devastating exploration of the fledgling heart. Tender, funny, mysterious and hopeful, it’s a flawless gem about the imperfect yet profound ways in which families love, and what that love costs.” —M. L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans
“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
“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
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