#11. Title Starting With the Letter ‘K’ – The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (Audible)

This is the fourth book by Natasha Pulley that I have listened to, and then decided that it would have been better to have read a physical copy of the book. At some point, I may treat myself to the books, because I’m sure there are details that I’ve missed whilst walking and getting distracted by something I’ve seen. That is a shame really, because her books are full of such exquisite details, they deserve more attention than what I’ve given them.

 

“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.”

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the history you thought you knew was wrong? What if you were given the chance to go back in time and change events that have already happened? If you did change things, then the future as you know it wouldn’t be able to exist…you might not be able to exist; those you love now might not exist because of the changes you’ve made. It’s quite the deep soul-searching question, and one that comes to play out in this novel.

The first thing that I have to say about this book is that it is a slow burn, in fact all the novels I’ve read by Natasha Pulley are slow burns, which is why I think I would do better reading her books than trying to listen to them. That said, I don’t mean to suggest that the books are boring, rambling on about nothing, I mean that the story slowly unfurls. Pulley is a storyteller, she weaves a magical tale around “nothingness,” it is as though you can read several pages and still feel left in the dark, but you continue to read because you know, you know, that something interesting is being kept from you, it’s just ever so slightly out of reach, but with a bit of patience, the answer will come in its own time. At some point, everything you have been told will suddenly start to make sense.

The year is 1898 when Joe Tournier disembarks from a train in London into a world which is unfamiliar to both him and us the reader; only this isn’t London, it’s Londres. The UK is under French rule and slavery still seems to exist, somehow, the French won the Battle of Trafalgar, and the English are now slaves.

The only thing Joe can remember is his name. Due to his obvious confusion, he is taken to an asylum and diagnosed with a type of epilepsy which causes amnesia. This has recently become a common affliction affecting many people. Joe’s master responds to an advertisement from the asylum, claiming that Joe is his slave, and he returns Joe home to his wife, but Joe doesn’t recognise her, he is still having difficulty remembering this world he is in. He has no memory of anyone, save a faint image in his head of a woman, and the name Madeline. His confusion is further compounded when he receives a postcard revealing a picture of Eilean Mor lighthouse, which was sent to him 90 years ago, saying “Dearest Joe, come home if you remember me, M.” The strange thing about this lighthouse is that it was recently built, so how could it possibly be on a postcard that is dated ninety years ago? He doesn’t understand why, but he knows he needs to find this person he knows as Madeline, so he leaves his wife and young daughter and departs for Eilean Mor Lighthouse.

Upon his arrival at the lighthouse, the reader is gradually drawn into a romance novel with a difference. The two central characters are very much in love, in a complex world where timelines intersect and every action has a consequence which effects not just their history, but the history of everyone around them. You get so emotionally caught up in the characters that by the end you feel mentally drained, but also compelled to re-read the start of the novel again, because now you know what clues you need to look for, and the realisation of that heartbreaking ending becomes crystal clear.

This book is so rich and complex, it’s like a puzzle book, little hints here and there, and if you follow the breadcrumbs that Pulley gives you, it leads you towards difficult, thought-provoking themes. It is a savage patchworked tale of love and loss, of sacrifice, the brutality of war, memories, trauma, conflict and the lives of the people who get caught up in the middle of it. The choices that the characters are forced into are difficult, Pulley has not given them an easy ride, nor does she trivialise how devasting trauma can be to someone.

If you are drawn to TV shows like “Sense8” or “The Lazarus Project” or enjoyed the novel “The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton, this might be a book you would want to consider. Pulley has written a beautiful novel, where even a character like Missouri Kite, who on the surface seems truly unlikeable, gets under your skin, and you enter a roller coaster ride of emotions as you question why Kite knows so much about Joe Tournier. Who, in fact, IS Joe Tournier? What is the significance of Eilean Mor lighthouse, and most importantly, how did the French win that battle?  It is such an interesting thought, what would our history be like if just one element of our past changed?

 

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Magical Realism

Release Date: 25^th May 2021

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Listening Time: 15h 1min

 

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