The Kingdom of Sand: the exhilarating new novel from the author of Dancer from the Dance

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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. 'Affecting and engaging' COLM T IB N 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 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. A The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2022

Reviews

[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 80 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 Tibn * New York Times *
Bracingly honest and wise... A beautiful way to describe how we fade away. * The Times, *Books of the Year* *
Holleran's fifth novel - both melancholy and hilarious - finds the protagonist living out his days in his late mother's Florida home, navigating loneliness, a changing world and a life post-cruising. The book's image of isolation and old age is all the more haunting because in 1978 Holleran wrote the quintessential novel about the sheer, careless pleasure of gay abandon, Dancer From the Dance. * New York Times *
[With] grim wit and flashes of sanctity from above... Holleran's writing is as calmly compelling as the repetitive tasks that occupy a monastic day. * Observer *
Holleran renders an elegiac and very funny contemplation of not just ageing but an age... A wistful, witty meditation on a gay man's twilight years and the twilight of America. -- Jeremy Atherton Lin * Guardian *

Author Bio

Andrew Holleran's first novel, Dancer from the Dance, was published in 1978 to great critical acclaim and is now regarded as a classic. He is also the author of Nights in Aruba; Ground Zero (reissued as Chronicles of a Plague); The Beauty of Men; In September, the Light Changes; and Grief