About the Book
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?
Format: Hardcover (224 pages) Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: 13th August 2026 Genre: Literary Fiction
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My Review
Twelve-year-old Jack’s life changed forever the day his mother died in tragic circumstances. With his father no longer on the scene, it’s left to his mother’s family to welcome him into their home. His Nana and Grandad, aunt Rose and three uncles – Haulie, Theo and JJ – are trying their best to support Jack in his grief, the extent and nature of which even he is struggling to understand or express.
The Connells are a wonderfully messy, idiosyncratic and at times unruly family but theirs is a home filled with love. Nana rules the roost and Grandad is the first to defend his family in any situation. Jack’s uncles Haulie and Theo run a garage, servicing and repairing cars whilst engaging in almost non-stop, often earthy but frequently hilarious, banter and entertaining Jack with tall stories. (Anyone who’s read any of Donal Ryan’s previous novels will know he has a real gift for dialogue and capturing the rhythm and lilt of an Irish accent.)
Although he is Jack’s uncle, JJ is not much older than Jack and initially their relationship is fractious, especially since they are forced to share a bedroom. Things are also complicated by Jack’s adolescent attraction to his aunt Rose which often provokes embarrassing and inconveniently timed physical reactions.
What I found particularly moving about the book is how Jack feels he must suppress any outward expression of grief, unaware that in fact it is more apparent than he realises. And he is burdened by constant feelings of guilt. Heartbreakingly, he believes it is something like a betrayal of his mother for him to feel moments of happiness. ‘He’d tell her he was sorry for being so happy all the time. No, not happy, exactly, but not sad either, not thrown down roaring crying the way he’d have thought he would be if he were to imagine being where he is now, back before it all happened, before the lake and the funeral, and the changed world.’
As we know witnessing traumatic events can have strange effects on the mind. In Jack’s case, every now and again fragments of events leading up to his mother’s death rise to the surface. He can’t make sense of them all, they don’t form a complete picture until, of course, they finally do. What he realises then is that his is a family with many secrets.
Where Are the Kings is a poignant exploration of grief through the eyes of a child, written with insight and gentle humour.
I received an advance reader copy courtesy of Doubleday via NetGalley. Where Are the Kings is book 11 of my 20 Books of Summer 2026.
In three words: Tender, intimate, moving
About the Author
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.
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