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The Book of Kings

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The Book of Kings

By: James Thackara
Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
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About this listen

 The Book of Kings is an epic novel that begins in the years shortly before World War II and leads up to the present day. While Europe drifts toward Nazism, four students share an apartment on the rue de Fleurus in Paris. Thackara brilliantly forges the stories of these four men whose lives mirror the larger picture.

The title alludes to God's prophetic warning to Samuel about the rise of man-made kings. James Thackara, as John Walsh wrote in The New Yorker, "watches Hitler's rise from a dozen different perspectives: at Nuremberg rallies; as reported in dinner table gossip; in close-up appearances at Hindenburg's side; in letters and rumors of war; in the gradually thickening atmosphere of fright and inevitability."

A work of extraordinary vision and range, The Book of Kings magnificently fuses myth and the inexorable events of history.

©1999 James Thackara (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction War & Military War Royalty Military Imperialism Middle ages Russia Interwar Period

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Critic reviews

"Absorbing...when you encounter one of the huge set-pieces that punctuate the action you are rocked on your heels." (The New Yorker)
"The book nobody should miss reading....Comparisons to War and Peace may be effusive but not totally unwarranted....A crowning achievement." (The Seattle Times)
All stars
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The publisher's notes say that this "epic novel" describes the lifes of 4 young men from their student days in pre-war Paris through the dark days of the war to post war Europe. In fact the story revolves principally around 2 of the 4 and the other 2 barely get a mention - indeed we learn little or nothing about the American but rather too much, I feel, about the Algerian "pied-noir".
It is certainly epic in length and the allusion to the BBC comedy series is prompted by the narrator's various attempts at French & German accents which abound throughout the book.
Quite why it was felt necessary or in the slightest bit authentic for these phoney foreign accents to be used is beyond my comprehension and did little to help the story along. I kept waiting for Officer Crabtree to appear - but no such luck!

A super extended version of 'Allo 'Allo

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

Deep thinkers and those able to hold a large number of characters and situations in their head.

What will your next listen be?

something simple and back to crime.

Did Robert Whitfield do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

A difficult job not altogether successfully.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Book of Kings?

A lot of the superfluous cutting back and forward into history.

Any additional comments?

Some will enjoy this book but it was far too long, with far too much back-chasing and very little description of where you were and about whom at any one time.

Philosophy gone mad.

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I tried hard to stick with this book, but was defeated by the author's constant use of england/english instead of Britain/British. He does a massive disservice to the thousands of Scots, Irish, Welsh, Australian, New Zealand etc., etc., who fought AND died in WW2. Is this just laziness or a colonial mindset?

Only england ?

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