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A Novel
Viking
March 2008
On Sale: February 28, 2008
192 pages ISBN: 0670018562 EAN: 9780670018567 Hardcover
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Fiction
A president has been overthrown by a military coup in a
nameless country in an unspecified era. The president’s
barber, chef, and portraitist are imprisoned, with many
others, in a remote palace in the hills high above the city
center. Before the coup, these three men worked with
unquestioning loyalty, serving the president in seemingly
benign jobs. Now, forced to serve the country’s new leader,
they begin to reconsider their role in the old regime. In simple, elegant prose Blood Kin alternates between the
voices of the barber, the chef, and the portraitist. Later
in the book their wives, lovers, and daughters tell their
own tales. As the old order falls, so does the veil that
hides the truth about these men and women’s secret passions.
No one, it seems, is entirely immune to the many temptations
of power. Ceridwen Dovey’s debut is a welcome addition to the
important tradition of allegorical writing about political
upheaval and personal guilt. Her clever, magnetic story will
resonate with fans of J. M. Coetzee, Mario Vargas Llosa, and
Gabriel García Márquez.
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