The Kingdoms

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What to expect

For fans of Matt Haig, Stuart Turton and Bridget Collins, a sweeping historical adventure from the Sunday Times bestselling author, that takes us from French-occupied London to a remote Scottish lighthouse and back through time itself.

'Original, joyous and horrifying, The Kingdoms is an awe-inspiring feat of imagination and passion which had me in tears by the end' - Catriona Ward

Come home, if you remember.

The postcard has been held at the sorting office for ninety-one years, waiting to be delivered to Joe Tournier. On the front is a lighthouse – Eilean Mor, in the Outer Hebrides.

Joe has never left England, never even left London. He is a British slave, one of thousands throughout the French Empire. He has a job, a wife, a baby daughter.

But he also has flashes of a life he cannot remember and of a world that never existed – a world where English is spoken in England, and not French.

And now he has a postcard of a lighthouse built just six months ago, that was first written nearly one hundred years ago, by a stranger who seems to know him very well.

Joe’s journey to unravel the truth will take him from French-occupied London to a remote Scottish island, and back through time as he battles for his life – and for a very different future.

Critics Review

  • Speculative fiction and historical fiction are closer cousins than one might think, and alternate-history novels can give enterprising writers the chance to work in both genres at once. Fans of such stories will be richly entertained by the lavish world-building and breakneck plotting of Natasha Pulley’s The Kingdoms…Beautiful, surreal imagery appears throughout the novel, too … Clear a weekend if you can, and let yourself be absorbed

    New York Times Book Review

  • I loved the vivid and intricate alternate universes of The Kingdoms, and the flawed and complicated people who inhabit them

    Katherine Addison

  • A twisty time-travelling tale … Pulley’s deft characterisation sucks the reader into what is a very human story of searching for a sense of belonging

    Independent

  • The Kingdoms is an intricate and complex but ultimately very satisfying read, blending time slip and historical fiction with the pace of a thriller and the sweetness of a love story. A unique book

    Sinead Crowley

  • A thrilling fantasy

    Take a Break

  • What a novel. It broke my heart and stretched my brain and when I finished reading it I turned back to the first page and started again. Readers are going to love this perfectly realised vision of all the futures that are possible and all the ways that love can break and heal us

    Stephanie Butland

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