The Kingdoms

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley, read by Theo Solomon.

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
Natasha Pulley has created a world so richly immersive that I felt real shock returning to reality. At once fiercely 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
Pulley must be one of the most imaginative and unique young British writers of her generation … A complex time travel enigma with echoes of Patrick O’Brian’s naval sagas ... A palette of strongly-etched characters who will stay in your mind for a long time and a central mystery about Joe’s true identity that holds back its dazzling revelation until the very end ... Fascinating and deeply engrossing
Crime Time
An incredible adventure ... A delightful time-slip novel
Saga
Intricately plotted, masterfully evoked and gorgeously written, this brilliant book blends time travel, alternative history and speculative fiction. I couldn’t put it down
Good Reading Magazine
Thoughtful, inventive, and moody … An insightful meditation on how a sense of oneself can be lost – and found
USA Today
All time-travel plots are fraught with paradox, but not all rise to Pulley’s level of tricky cleverness, and few of those trickily clever books rise to her level of emotional intensity. Suspenseful, philosophical, and inventive, this sparkling novel explores the power of memory and love.
Kirkus Reviews
Inventive, immersive and entirely unputdownable
Daily Mail
Wildly inventive, full of eeriness and magic, and fiendishly intricate plots
The Times
Pulley excels at portraying the emotionally charged interplay of her charming cast
Guardian

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