Join us for an author talk with Donal Ryan in conversation with Clare Leslie Hall to celebrate Donal's new book 'Where Are the Kings?'

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...

Date: Thursday 3rd September

Time: 7pm

Venue: Sevenoaks Bookshop, 147 High Street, Sevenoaks, TN13 1XJ

Tickets: from £12

"Beautiful, hilarious and completely gripping... I fell in love with the whole family, the sheer goodness of them, the way Donal Ryan gets inside Jack's heart and head and explores the gap between them, what he knows and feels... a story filled with love that shines a light on all the hidden places. My life is better because of it." Rachel Joyce

"Where are the Kings is a brilliant, quietly devastating exploration of the fledgling heart. Tender, funny, mysterious and hopeful, it's a flawless gem about the imperfect yet profound ways in which families love, and what that love costs." M L Stedman

"No one gets inside the heart like Donal Ryan. A book about belonging and coming home, about letting go and finding family. I loved it from the first word to the last." Kit de Waal

Where Are the Kings

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?

Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, has published seven number one bestselling novels and a short story collection.

He has won several awards for his fiction, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award and six Irish Book Awards, and has been shortlisted for several more, including the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award.

He has been nominated for the Booker Prize twice.

His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, won the Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, the Orwell Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards.

His work has been adapted for stage and screen.

He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

Clare Leslie Hall

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset with her family.

After many years living and working in London as a journalist and writing Pictures of Him and Days You Were Mine, Clare, her husband and three children moved to an old farmhouse in Dorset.

The house, the ancient fields surrounding it and the farmers who have a deep connection to the land inspired the setting for her third book Broken Country.

Some of the ticket options that don’t include the author’s book, or are specially priced for couples, are limited in number and can sell out quickly. Our aim is to try and bring the best and most interesting authors to our town. We are always trying to balance accessibility and affordability for our audiences, alongside requirements from publishers to sell enough books for events to be worthwhile enterprises for their authors.

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