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Andrew Holleran's unique literary voice is on full display in this poignant story of lust, dread, and desire - the first novel in sixteen years from one of the most acclaimed gay authors of our time.
A The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2022
One of BuzzFeed's Hot LGBTQ+ Books From The First Half Of 2022
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 with it 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.
An elegy to sex and the body, but also a tragically honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, The Kingdom of Sand marks the much-anticipated return of Andrew Holleran.
Author: Andrew Holleran
Paperback Published 8 July 2023 272 pages
Originally published in hardback 7 July 2022
“[Holleran’s] new novel is all the more affecting and engaging because the images of isolation and old age here are haunted . . . In 1978 Holleran wrote the quintessential novel about gay abandon, the sheer, careless pleasure of it: Dancer from the Dance. Now, at almost eighty years of age, he has produced a novel remarkable for its integrity, for its readiness to embrace difficult truths and for its complex way of paying homage to the passing of time.” ―Colm Tóibín, The New York Times Book Review
“It’s rare to find fiction that takes this kind of dying of the light as its subject and doesn’t make its heroes feel either pathetic or polished with a gleam of false dignity . . . This sad, beautiful book captures the sensations Holleran’s characters are chasing―as well as the darkness that inevitably comes for them, and us.” ―Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times