May We Feed the King - Pre Order - October 2026 Release

Synopsis

A museum curator spends her days reconstructing medieval interiors, arranging furniture, textiles, and everyday objects so each room appears as though its inhabitants have only just stepped away. When she begins work on the private chambers of a long-forgotten king, she becomes increasingly consumed by his story, and the boundary between her own life and the past begins to dissolve.

The king is an unlikely ruler, thrust onto the throne after the sudden deaths of his brothers and quietly doubted by those around him. As rumours spread through the palace and whispers of another successor emerge, the curator pieces together his life from fragments, omissions, and the traces left behind.

Richly atmospheric and deeply immersive, May We Feed the King is an elegant debut about history, memory, longing, and the stories that endure long after those who lived them are gone.

About the Author

Rebecca Perry is a British poet and writer. Her debut poetry collection, Beauty/Beauty, won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her second collection, Stone Fruit, was published in 2021. May We Feed the King is her debut novel.

Publisher
Astra House

Publication Date
September 9, 2025

Format
Paperback

Pages
272

Subjects
Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Debut Fiction

ISBN
9798893380620

searing meditation on the small details and large gaps that make up a life, on what becomes lost over time and what our devotion can reanimate.