Where Are the Kings by Donal Ryan: Grief will out

Donal Ryan is the author of seven bestselling novels, six of which I’ve reviewed on this blog, plus a short story collection, all within fourteen years: quite a feat. His latest novella follows twelve-year-old Jack over the two years after a terrible loss sees his grandmother and grandfather take him into their home.

And they walk along a path worn through the grass by thousands of other feet to the lake, where the swans float regally, ignoring them, and they stand all three of them, mother, father and child, in the dying day, in the safety of each other, at the lip of the well of their lives.

Jack’s a bright boy, a good boy who entered the world with no fuss. His mother’s family live just a few miles away but his father is a Slovak who fled the Russian invasion of his country, unstable and given to histrionic monologues in the front garden. One day his mother sets off in the battered family Fiat towards the lake with Jack careering after her on his bike, too late to save her. The tragedy breaks his father who’s admitted to the local psychiatric hospital. Jack’s new home is with Nana, Grandpa, his uncles Theo, Haulie, and JJ, just a year or so older than him, and his aunt Rose who he adores. Jack settles in, taught to hunt by Theo and Haulie, soaking up the banter as they work in the garage that has taken the place of the family farm, occasionally visiting his father. His mother is never mentioned, but Jack sometimes hears whispered conversations, burying the loss he feels he should have prevented, never crying or thinking of her much until he decides to mark her birthday by visiting the old family home.

All the lads are sound. They’re a bit embarrassed by his grief. So he doesn’t show it and they don’t look for it. Pussies go around crying, looking for sympathy.

Wisely avoiding a first-person narrative, Ryan unfolds his story from Ryan’s perspective capturing the grief of a young boy who’s learnt to mask his feelings, falling behind in his schoolwork, avoiding the pity of his friends, until he begins to understand there are secrets kept from him. As ever, Ryan’s writing is poetically lyrical yet concise, portraying Jack with an empathetic compassion, backed up with a cast of strong characters; with their careful observation of Jack, Theo and Haulie are particularly well done. Inevitably, it’s a heartrending story skilfully leavened with a gentle humour which steers it clear of the maudlin. Still hoping to meet the Aylward women from The Queen of Dirt Island again, briefly referenced in this one as are the Gadneys from Strange Flowers prompting me to repeat my comparison with Kent Haruf’s Holt series. High praise indeed.

Doubleday Books: London 9780857529589 224 pages Hardback (NetGalley)