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The Splintered Kingdom
The Splintered Kingdom
Dec 22, 2025 1:11 PM

Author:James Aitcheson

The Splintered Kingdom

England, 1070.

Renowned for his exploits, the knight Tancred has become a lord in his own right, with men to command and a manor to call home on the turbulent Welsh Marches.

But his hard-fought gains are soon placed in peril, as the Normans’ newly won kingdom falls under siege on all sides. A coalition of enemies both old and new prepares to march, and King William’s fragile hold on England is brought to breaking point.

Amidst the turmoil, and with rivals seeking to undermine him, Tancred is chosen to lead an expedition deep into Wales. His sternest challenge yet, it will be either his chance for glory, or his undoing.

Reviews

'Incendiary stuff'

—— Observer

'The gradual deepening texture, which opens to deep feeling beneath the comic surface, justifies it all'

—— The Times

This riveting historical page-turner moves inexorably toward a heartrending crescendo.

—— Booklist

An impressive and richly atmospheric debut.

—— New York Times Book Review

A gentle fiction, as big-hearted as it’s star is heavy.

—— Vogue

Heft is a suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices

—— Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

Moore’s characters are lovingly drawn . . . A truly original voice.

—— The New Yorker

Liz Moore has a light touch… she never takes her characters too seriously, letting their drama and sadness trickle through slowly rather than undamming any torrent of emotion or sentimentality. This knack is largely down to her seemingly effortless, economic prose as well as her appreciation of the notion of loneliness.

—— Time Out

A book to be devoured

—— Heat

Selasi's ambition - to show her readers not "Africa" but one African family, authors of their own achievements and failures - is one that can be applauded no matter what accent you give the word

—— Nell Freudenberger , The New York Times

The first line of Taiye Selasi's buoyant first novel, Ghana Must Go, captures the book in miniature: "Kweku dies barefoot on a Sunday before sunrise, his slippers by the doorway to the bedroom like dogs." The springy dactylic meter of the prose (KWEku dies BAREfoot on a . . .), the sly internal rhymes (Sunday, sunrise, doorway), the surprising twist on a cliché (to die like a dog), the invigorating mixture of darkness and drollery are a big part of what makes this book such a joy... It's an auspicious how-do-you-do to the world, and nearly every page of the novel displays the same bounce and animation... rapturous.

—— Wall Street Journal

A terse and subtle tour-de-force

—— Cara

A slim but sure tale of love, death and imperialism

—— RTE Guide

A quietly compelling and provocative work

—— Sunday Business Post

A dark and sinewy novel, written with sparse clarity and affecting subtlety

—— Stuart Evers , Observer Books of the Year

In a year marked by epics, it's a relief to delve into this quiet, surprisingly tense debut novel - small enough to stuff in a stocking but packing a huge emotional punch

—— Entertainment Weekly

A novel of subtle beauty and quiet grace; I found myself hanging on every simple word, as tense about the consequences of a man finding an apartment as if I were reading about a man defusing a bomb. ... It is one of the best novels I have read in a long time. ... With elegant restraint, Baxter layers the narratives, anecdotes and experiences in the manner of life as continuous essay, the topic of which might be stated as, "What is a right way to be in the world?" ... It is very much to Baxter's credit that he presents this struggle as if it were thriller, love story, philosophical novel and dark comedy combined, in a novel not liek a bullet but like an arrow flying straight to the heart of the matter.

—— New York Times Book Review

A quiet and powerful read through and through. Baxter's clean and direct prose generates its own momentum. He chooses not to create a tidy drama where characters are explained by their pasts. Rather, he creates something bigger and more true.

—— Daily Beast

Compelling ... captures the mood of the current moment and what seems to be a new "lost generation", one formed not so much by exposure to violence, as immunity to and alienation from it. Once upon a time, there was no place like home; in Mr. Baxter's world, home, it seems, is no place.

—— New York Times

Absorbing, atmospheric and enigmatic ... With its disorienting juxtaposition of the absolutely ordinary and the strange and vaguely threatening, the novel evokes the work of Franz Kafka and Haruki Murakami, while its oblique explorations of memory suggest a debt to W.G. Sebald

—— Los Angeles Times

A thrilling follow-up to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island...Silver is a novel that will appeal to readers of all ages. Beautifully written and genuinely exciting...Best of all, Motion’s novel stays true to Stevenson’s original tale while adding an extra dimension.

—— Emma Lee-Potter , Daily Express

Elegant, thrilling sequel...The plot is gripping, a mixture of high adventure, low cunning and desperation...Motion’s prose vivid and glowingly poetic, is a brilliant counterpoint to the fascinating action.

—— Eithne Farry , Daily Mail

This is a pacey tale with an appropriately feisty young heroine for modern readers

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

Andrew Motion brings lyricism but, more importantly, rollicking adventure to this sequel to Treasure Island

—— Mail on Sunday
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