Where Are the Kings — Donal Ryan Coleman’s Notes® Reader’s Companion CN-076

Read the novel. Explore it more deeply.

Donal Ryan’s Where Are the Kings is a moving exploration of family, grief, adolescence, memory and belonging.

At its centre is Jack, a young boy trying to understand his mother’s death, his father’s absence and the complicated family history surrounding him.

Taken into the noisy, loving and sometimes chaotic world of his mother’s extended family in rural Tipperary, Jack finds companionship, humour and practical wisdom. But unanswered questions remain. As childhood gives way to adolescence, he must negotiate grief, guilt, desire and his growing need to understand both his parents and himself.

The Coleman’s Notes® Reader’s Companion provides a comprehensive guide for readers who want to go far beyond a simple plot summary and explore the novel’s characters, ideas and emotional complexities in much greater depth.

INSIDE YOUR READER’S COMPANION

• Extended Plot Summary

• Detailed Reading Guide

• 26-part Chapter-by-Chapter/Episode Guide

• Comprehensive Character Studies

• Key Themes and Motifs

• Setting and Context

• Language, Style and Narrative Technique

• Eight Extended Close Readings

• Critical Perspectives

• Extended Analysis

• Further Book-Club Analysis

• 50 Reading & Discussion Questions

• Reader’s Essay and Study Focus

• Ten Key Episodes

• Twenty Key Concepts

• Quick Reference Section

The guide pays particular attention to Jack’s experience of grief and adolescence, his relationships with Grace and Tomáš, and the extraordinary extended family that surrounds him.

It also explores Ryan’s treatment of time, memory, humour, masculinity, family secrecy, belonging and the idea of repair, together with the significance of the novel’s three-part structure.

IDEAL FOR BOOK CLUBS

With 50 dedicated reading and discussion questions, extensive character and thematic analysis and detailed exploration of the novel’s most important episodes, this companion provides a ready-made framework for a deeper and more rewarding book-club discussion.

It is equally suitable for individual readers who have finished the novel and want to understand and appreciate it more fully.

CN-076 | Digital PDF | £6.95

ALSO AVAILABLE IN CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION 1

CN-073 — John of John — Douglas Stuart

CN-074 — Nesting — Roisín O’Donnell

CN-075 — Mrs Dickens — Emily Howes

CN-076 — Where Are the Kings — Donal Ryan

CN-077 — Boudicca’s Daughter — Elodie Harper

Individual Reader’s Companions: £6.95 each

Five separately: £34.75

CONTEMPORARY COLLECTION 1 — £29.95

SAVE £4.80

READ • REFLECT • EXPLORE • UNDERSTAND

Coleman’s Notes® • Great Books • Brighter Minds