The Kingdom of Sand

'Affecting and engaging' COLM TOIBIN

'A wistful, witty meditation on a gay man's twilight years and the twilight of America' Guardian

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 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.

'Bracingly honest and wise' The Times, Books of the Year

'Both melancholy and hilarious' New York Times