The Last Kings of Sark
Published on 7. November 2013
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-84408-931-4 (ISBN)
Description
'My name is Jude. And because of Law, Hey and the Obscure, they thought I was a boy.' Jude is twenty-one when she flies in a private plane to Sark, a tiny carless Channel Island, the last place in Europe to abolish feudalism. She has been hired for the summer to give tuition to a rich local boy called Pip. But when she arrives, the family is unsettling- Pip is awkward, over-literal, and adamant he doesn't need a tutor, and upstairs, his enigmatic mother Esme casts a shadow over the house. Enter Sofi: the family's holiday cook, a magnetic, mercurial Polish girl with appalling kitchen hygiene, who sings to herself and sleeps naked. When the father of the family goes away on business, Pip's science lessons are replaced by midday rose and scallop-smuggling, and summer begins. Soon something surprising starts to touch the three together. But those strange, golden weeks cannot last forever. Later, in Paris, Normandy and London, they find themselves looking for the moment that changed everything. Compelling, dark and funny, The Last Kings of Sark is tale of complicated love, only children and missed opportunities, from an extraordinary new writer.
Reviews / Votes
Poignancy and nostalgia follow a summer on Sark in a novel full of sensuality and wit -- Catherine Taylor Guardian Rosa Rankin-Gee has woven an irresistible and heady spell of youth and summer, love and friendship. Her energetic prose and attention to sensual detail will keep you reading greedily until the last page and thinking about the characters long afterwards. What an enchanting debut -- Joanna Hershon, author of A Dual Inheritance A delicate, mournful novel about the complicated ties that develop quickly between young people thrown together - Pick of the Month The Bookseller Funny, vivid, bittersweet -- Ned Beauman, author of The Teleportation Accident This is a book full of adventure and love. Like every great novel it has magic at its core. It feels very modern too, like it has been written by a writer of a new time ... A writer we will all want to read again and again -- Monique Roffey, author of Archipelago A luminous, enchanting novel about friendship, loss, and love. Exquisitely written, beautifully told, The Last Kings of Sark is a world I won't soon forget -- Anton DiSclafani, New York Times bestselling author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls Rosa Rankin-Gee writes beautifully and vividly The List A stunningly well-written first novel -- Kate Saunders The Times A lithe, shimmering novel ... in the strong sensuality, witty dialogue and white-heat-forged friendships there is some similarity to Geoff Dyer's 90s classic Paris Truce Guardian A captivating story with a twist ending marieclaire.co.uk Deftly done and with a pleasing air of romance as well as melancholy threaded through it -- Victoria Moore Daily Mail Perhaps luckily for Rankin-Gee, her debut novel more than lives up to the hype. Subtle and sensual, The Last Kings of Sark delicately and eloquently weaves a heady tale of complicated love around the tiny island of Sark ... Rankin-Gee writes poetically -- Alexandra Murphy We Love This Book Rankin-Gee's writing is fresh and thoughtful but with a beautiful undercurrent of sadness. This coming-of-age novel is wonderfully realised; when you open the covers you can feel the sea salt drying on your skin Emerald Street She writes like a cross between Francoise Sagan and Nell Dunn: strange dreamy and with razor sharp characterization Marie Claire The Last Kings of Sark is a sun-drenched, sharply nostalgic tale of our most defining years and how they shape us Stylist The Last Kings of Sark is a debut novel of rare subtly, and Rankin-Gee a wordsmith of talent beyond her years The National A stunning read, Rankin-Gee is one to watch Press AssociationMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
496 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84408-931-4 (9781844089314)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Rosa Rankin-Gee
The Last Kings of Sark
Book
11/2013
Virago Press Ltd
€36.08
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Additional editions
Person
Rosa Rankin-Gee grew up in Kensal Rise, London, but now lives by the Parc de Belleville in Paris. In 2010, she was one of Esquire magazine's '75 Brilliant Young Brits'. In 2011, she won Shakespeare & Company's international Paris Literary Prize. Rosa Rankin-Gee runs a night-bird version of a Book Club, where up to 300 people come to swap books and drink cocktails in the former home of George Bizet. She also does freelance copywriting. She is twenty-six.