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

‘Beautiful, hilarious and completely gripping’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Handmade God

'No one gets inside the heart like Donal Ryan' KIT DE WAAL, author of The Best of Everything

‘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, author of An Unlikely Visitor

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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?
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'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