Where Are the Kings

£16.99

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?

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Scheduled for publication on 13th August, 2026
The book will be available on or after this date. If you would like to preorder a copy, we will notify you when it is ready to collect.

SKU: 9780857529589 Category: Tag: Publisher/imprint : Doubleday
Page count : 224
Published on 13th August, 2026

Description

Tender, moving, full of warmth and crackling with humour and the love of family, the exquisite new novel from the winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction and the Irish Book of the Year…

Beautiful, hilarious and completely grippingRACHEL JOYCE

‘No one gets inside the heart like Donal Ryan’ KIT DE WAAL

‘Donal Ryan conjures up characters so solid, so complete and authentic, it immediately feels as though you have known them for your entire life’ JOANNA CANNON

***
Something terrible has happened to Jack but no one seems to want to talk about it.

His uncles can tell him about everything from quantum physics to how to hunt for deer, but they can’t seem to tell him anything about their own sister or why Jack doesn’t feel sad for her in the way he should, or why Grandad tries to shoot Jack’s dad when he gets out of the hospital.

Still, there’s work to be done in the oily wonderland of his uncles’ garage; there’s his beautiful aunt Rose to hypnotise him and his loving grandparents to console him; then there’s JJ, who wants to fight him one day and save him the next.

But with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, it is difficult for Jack to understand the person he is becoming. How can a simple boy learn to become a king?
____

Tender, funny, mysterious and hopeful a flawless gem’ M L Stedman, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Far-flung Life and The Light Between Oceans

Warm, irreverent and desperately humane.’ Jan Carson, author of Few & Far Between

So arresting, so captivating…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.’ Annie Mac

Additional information

Weight 0.336 kg
Dimensions 22.4 × 14.5 × 2.2 cm
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