Staff Pick
Natasha Pulley has an uncanny ability to make me feel some kind of way about the concept of time. The interplay of time and memory in her newest novel, The Kingdoms, wows to astounding and gut-wrenching effect. Truly it has everything: alternate history, naval warfare, a yearning-filled love story, and temporally displaced tortoises. I did yell out loud alone in my apartment as I neared the end, which is about as glowing an endorsement as I can give. Please read this and then all her previously published fiction so next time we can yell together. Recommended By Sarah R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
For fans of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and David Mitchell, a genre bending, time twisting alternative history that asks whether it's worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you've ever loved.
Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English-instead of French-the postcard is signed only with the letter "M," but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.
From bestselling author Natasha Pulley, The Kingdoms is an epic, wildly original novel that bends genre as easily as it twists time.
Review
“Suspenseful, philosophical, and inventive, this sparkling novel explores the power of memory and love.”
Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
“Thoughtful, inventive, and moody...an insightful meditation on how a sense of oneself can be lost — and found.”
USA Today
Review
“This riveting story keeps the reader hoping that Joe can rebuild his family in the best time line.”
Booklist
Review
“Pulley balances the topsy-turvy nature of time travel by grounding her story in tidbits of naval history and a gradually unfolding queer love story.”
BookPage
Review
“Lavish world-building…breakneck plotting....Beautiful, surreal imagery appears throughout the novel, too...Clear a weekend if you can, and let yourself be absorbed.”
The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Pulley's latest genre-bending feat (after The Lost Future of Pepperharrow) masterfully combines history, speculative fiction, queer romance, and more into an unputdownable whole... This is a stunner." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
About the Author
Natasha Pulley, the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Bedlam Stacks, and The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, studied English literature at Oxford University and earned a creative writing M.A. at the University of East Anglia. She lives in Bath, England.