Hollow Kingdom

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A foul-mouthed crow and a bloodhound adventure through the wilderness of postapocalyptic Seattle fighting monsters while rescuing animals in need of help. Kira Jane Buxton’s dark sense of humor and witty narrative make Hollow Kingdom a dystopian delight. Recommended By Mary Jo S., Powells.com

One pet crow fights to save humanity from an apocalypse in this uniquely hilarious debut from a genre-bending literary author.

S. T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.

Then Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, and S. T. starts to feel like something isn’t quite right. His most tried-and-true remedies — from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis — fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady. S. T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he discovers that the neighbors are devouring each other and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle. Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow whose knowledge of the world around him comes from his TV-watching education.

Hollow Kingdom is a humorous, big-hearted, and boundlessly beautiful romp through the apocalypse and the world that comes after, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero.

"Hollow Kingdom combines dark subject matter with an oddball sense of humor in what proves to be a winning formula . . . a surprising, funny, genre-bending novel, an environmentalist parable crossed with an epic adventure story, difficult to describe and even more difficult to put down." Shelf Awareness

"Everything you're hearing about Kira Jane Buxton's Hollow Kingdom — that it's wildly original and inventive, funny and profane — is wonderfully true. But even better, this book is timely, smart, movingly written, and beautifully concluded." Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is and member of the Seattle7 Writers

"Hollow Kingdom is a nature book for our own age, an exuberant, glittering, hard-hitting mashup of Dawn of the Dead and The Incredible Journey. It's an adventure lit by strange myths, brand-names, television and smartphone screens, a fable with teeth and claws about animals making new lives amongst the ruins of humanity. It's transformative, poignant, and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite apocalyptic hero." Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk

"Buxton's quirky ideas and compelling nonhuman characters will satisfy literary fiction and zombie genre enthusiasts alike who are looking for something beguilingly different." Booklist

Kira Jane Buxton’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Huffington Post, and more. She calls the tropical utopia of Seattle, Washington, home and spends her time with three cats, a dog, two crows, a charm of hummingbirds, and a husband.

A trail meanders alongside the Sammamish River in Bothell, Washington. I walked this trail every morning with my small bearded dog, Ewok, as his voluminous Gandalf beard collected crispy leaves and brushed the body of moss and other bryophytes....

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