The Kingdom of Sand
the exhilarating new novel from the author of Dancer from the Dance
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- 115,00 kr
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- 115,00 kr
Utgivarens beskrivning
'Affecting and engaging' COLM TÓIBÍN
'A wistful, witty meditation on a gay man's twilight years and the twilight of America' Guardian
Out in the drought-struck backwaters of rural Florida, The Kingdom of Sand's nameless narrator lives a life of semi-solitude, enjoying the odd, fleeting sexual encounter and the friendship of a few.
His world is ageing, and the memories of another time flash, then fade - visions of parties filled with handsome young men, the parents whom he chose to spend his life besides, the generation he once knew, struck down by AIDS. But, when forced to watch the slow demise of a close neighbour, he is drawn back to the here and now, and his own borrowed time in this kingdom of sand.
'Bracingly honest and wise' The Times, Books of the Year
'Both melancholy and hilarious' New York Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The geographical and emotional landscape of contemporary rural Florida is at the core of this majestic and wistful rumination on ageing, loneliness, and mortality from Holleran (Dancer from the Dance). The 60-something unnamed narrator strives to hold onto a long, lingering friendship with Earl, who's 20 years older, and reflects with bittersweetness on losses, past loves, and the indulgences of desire and lust. (His melancholy excursions include cruising a video arcade and a boat ramp in nearby Gainesville, places he's visited for the past couple of decades.) Earl is a retired accountant and widower, and their common interests—books, music, "fine furniture," picking blueberries—have bound them through the years as they remember friends of theirs who have died from AIDS and the narrator cared for his ailing parents. He thinks of their friendship as a "bucolic dream," the "perfect combination of solitude and companionship." The specter of death feels to the narrator "like a game of musical chairs... when the music stops you have to sit down wherever you are." Though the novel is permeated by a mournful depression, Holleran brings stylistic flourishes and mordant nostalgia to the proceedings, and fully develops the narrator, who floats elegantly on his distilled memories and eventually lands on a beautiful resolution. This vital work shows Holleran at the top of his game.
