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The Kingdom of Sand: A Novel Hardcover – June 7, 2022

by Andrew Holleran (Author)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 448 ratings
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A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE PICK
ONE OF THE LONDON TIMES' TOP TWENTY-SIX FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR
LA TIMES 5 BEST BOOKS OF 2022
BBC CULTURE'S 50 BEST BOOKS OF 2022
LONGLIST FOR THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD

"[Holleran's] new novel is all the more affecting and engaging because the images of isolation and old age here are haunted . . . in 1978 Holleran wrote the quintessential novel about gay abandon, the sheer, careless pleasure of it: Dancer From the Dance. Now, at almost 80 years of age, he has produced a novel remarkable for its integrity, for its readiness to embrace difficult truths and for its complex way of paying homage to the passing of time." ―Colm Toibin, The New York Times Book Review

"It’s rare to find fiction that takes this kind of dying of the light as its subject and doesn’t make its heroes feel either pathetic or polished with a gleam of false dignity . . . This sad, beautiful book captures the sensations Holleran’s characters are chasing ― as well as the darkness that inevitably comes for them, and us." ―Mark Athitakis, The Los Angeles Times

One of the great appeals of Florida has always been the sense that the minute you get here you have permission to collapse.

The Kingdom of Sand is a poignant tale of desire and dread―Andrew Holleran’s first new book in sixteen years. The nameless narrator is a gay man who moved to Florida to look after his aging parents―during the height of the AIDS epidemic―and has found himself unable to leave after their deaths. With gallows humor, he chronicles the indignities of growing old in a small town.

At the heart of the novel is the story of his friendship with Earl, whom he met cruising at the local boat ramp. For the last twenty years, he has been visiting Earl to watch classic films together and critique the neighbors. Earl is the only person in town with whom he can truly be himself. Now Earl’s health is failing, and our increasingly misanthropic narrator must contend with the fact that once Earl dies, he will be completely alone. He distracts himself with sexual encounters at the video porn store and visits to Walgreens. All the while, he shares reflections on illness and death that are at once funny and heartbreaking.

Holleran’s first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is widely regarded as a classic work of gay literature. Reviewers have described his subsequent books as beautiful, exhilarating, seductive, haunting, and bold. The Kingdom of Sand displays all of Holleran’s considerable gifts; it’s an elegy to sex and a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, especially as we count down our days.

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  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux
  4. Publication date
    June 7, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.7 x 1.05 x 8.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0374600961
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0374600969
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Kingdom of Sand

"Both melancholy and hilarious . . . [The Kingdom of Sand] is remarkable for its readiness to embrace difficult truths." ―New York Times Book Review, "Editor's Choice" Pick

“So many of us are wondering, how do we live after losing everything and everyone we loved? Some of us have lived through that, from the most recent pandemic before this one. Andrew Holleran’s report from the other side is a novel with, if not answers to guide us, questions to guide us. An unexpectedly timely novel―wise, shrewd, and in its way, kind, if honesty is ever kind. And written with the sure hand of a master.” ―Alexander Chee

“Andrew Holleran writes about desire so beautifully it's occasionally been forgotten that he's one of the best living novelists on friendship. This tender, often very funny novel is a book about that final field of play between friends, when all the masks are removed. I wish it never ended.” ―John Freeman, author of How to Read a Novelist

“Timely and pressing . . .[The Kingdom of Sand] has the wit and keen, often biting observations of gay life that made me fall in love with Holleran's books all those years ago. [It] is Andrew Holleran at his best.” ―Jeffrey Masters, The Advocate

"[Holleran's] new novel is all the more affecting and engaging because the images of isolation and old age here are haunted . . . in 1978 Holleran wrote the quintessential novel about gay abandon, the sheer, careless pleasure of it: Dancer From the Dance. Now, at almost 80 years of age, he has produced a novel remarkable for its integrity, for its readiness to embrace difficult truths and for its complex way of paying homage to the passing of time." ―Colm Toibin, The New York Times Book Review

"It’s rare to find fiction that takes this kind of dying of the light as its subject and doesn’t make its heroes feel either pathetic or polished with a gleam of false dignity . . . This sad, beautiful book captures the sensations Holleran’s characters are chasing ― as well as the darkness that inevitably comes for them, and us." ―Mark Athitakis, The Los Angeles Times

"A fundamentally honest novel about the loneliness of being human." ―Oprah Daily

"It’s a cross between the spareness of Hemingway and the psychological complexity of Proust, and a meaningful way to celebrate Pride Month. Enjoy the luxury of great talent, and a literature we can call our own." ―The Provincetown Independent

"[The Kingdom of Sand is] both haunting and ultimately beautiful." ―Vogue's "12 New Queer Books to Read This Summer"

"American fiction has no more dedicated elegist―no one more finely attuned to the pain and pleasure of endings―than Andrew Holleran." ―The Wall Street Journal

"The Kingdom of Sand [is] Holleran’s splendid new novel and one of the best books I’ve read about what Elizabeth Bishop memorably called “the state with the prettiest name.”' ―Book Post

"Holleran is terrific at description . . . Thanks to [his] brilliant gift for characterization, the narrator and Earl come alive on the page, commanding readers’ attention to what is a splendid, remarkably good book." ―Michael Cart, Booklist (starred review)

"Holleran’s thoughtful, poetic treatment makes this material deeply moving and an important contribution to the literature of mortality. It’s one of the most beautiful novels of the year." ―BookPage

"Thrilling . . . Holleran is fiercely a pointillist. His observations about the minute details of his narrator’s life feel revelatory―and not always specific to the lives of gay men." ―Kirkus (starred review)

"[A] majestic and wistful rumination on ageing, loneliness, and mortality . . . This vital work shows Holleran at the top of his game." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The author of the seminal queer classic Dancer from the Dance returns with a wide-eyed and wise novel about the ecstasies and agonies of being an aging gay." ―Electric Literature's Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books for Summer 2022

“Andrew Holleran doesn’t write many books―this is his first in 13 years. So when the author of one of the United States’ most enduring tale of modern gay life releases a new title, we have to pay attention.” ―Paul Gallant, Xtra

"As melancholy as a summer Sunday sunset at 8:45 p.m., Andrew Holleran’s beautiful new novel is a study in solitude." ―LGBTQ Nation

""A heart-wrenching novel that explores the meanings of death and loneliness." ―Deep South Magazine

Praise for Dancer from the Dance

“An astonishingly beautiful book. The best gay novel written by anyone of our generation.” ―Harper’s Magazine

“Beautifully written, evocative, and hilarious . . . Holleran has the uncanny ability to combine emotional abandon and high comedy.” ―New Republic

“Superb . . . Erotic heat percolates through these pages.” ―The New York Times Book Review

Praise for Grief

“Grief, [Holleran’s] haunting and unexpectedly exhilarating new novel, takes his longtime themes―loss, desire, the deep joy and solace humans derive from their homes and surroundings―and distills them into a heady, bittersweet aperitif.” ―The Washington Post

About the Author

Andrew Holleran’s first novel, Dancer from the Dance, was published in 1978. He is also the author of the novels Nights in Aruba and The Beauty of Men; a book of essays, Ground Zero (reissued as Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited); a collection of short stories, In September, the Light Changes; and a novella, Grief.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (June 7, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374600961
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374600969
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 1.05 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 448 ratings

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Andrew Holleran

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
448 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

T. S. Lowe
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Deceptively Simple Prose
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2022
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As I read the opening page of THE KINGDOM OF SAND I marveled at Holleran's long sentences and paragraphs that should have looked intimidating on the page, but which did not, probably because I knew they were composed by Holleran. That composition, that structure, does not happen by accident, and I trusted Holleran to guide me to the end of each sentence and of each paragraph.

I have loved Holleran's writing since I first discovered it in the final issues of CHRISTOPHER STREET magazine many years ago. THE KINGDOM OF SAND, however, takes things to a different level, though it almost took me by surprise, as he tells the deceptively simple story of a single gay man of a certain age as he goes about his day-to-day existence, focusing on his long friendship with Earl, an older, also single, gay man. This is the story of this man and his life, but, wow, it rang so true that it felt universal. The insights that are quietly observed are so astute but never didactic.

This was the first novel where as I came to the final page, I was both sorry to see it end, but I was also excited to see how it ended. It was the first novel in a long time that, as soon as I finished the last line, I wanted to go back to page one and start reading it all over.
4 people found this helpful
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Steven Kerry
4.0 out of 5 stars The Dark Side of the Lagoon
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2023
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This is the literary gay fiction version of a Loaded Pizza. It has all the style. grace, and traditional traits of Holleran's other books but loads on the bleakest aspects of those books like mountains of provolone as if anyone missed the point before. And the point is? I can only guess:
To paint a vivid and unsparing portrait of life as an old, lonely, and unattached gay man I suppose. And that it does with great expertise. Unfortunately it is not the sad, strangely aimless protagonist that I found myself liking or relating to as much as the book's other prominent character, a marvelously drawn character named Earl whose health is progressively deteriorating.
Unfortunately, in the process of presenting a protagonist that seems very familiar from Holleran's other books it also delivers yet another work of entertainment that exemplifies a very old and dated stereotype of gay men: that unless we are partnered we are all lonely, sad men hankering after young grocery store baggers, leering at handsome strangers on the street, watching porn (is anything more fake and unerotic than most gay porn??) and cruising public places. Video arcades? Boat ramps? Someone still does this in the age of hook-up apps? OK.
The book is described as a "novel" but it reads more like a memoir or autobiography. Nothing wrong with that, but because I have read every one of this writer's other books I can tell you that he is describing the same general character as wandered the streets of Washington, D.C. in his last book, "Grief". In fact, the same protagonist or lead character emerges in almost all of Holleran's books, a character who seems to find something exquisite in the most melancholic aspects of gay male life. Even Malone in "Dancer From the Dance" seemed 90 despite his youth and beauty, and was awash in despair and a tragic outlook of gay male life. (Notice I avoided the ridiculous term "life style" as there is no such thing as a "gay lifestyle".)
The book is, as previously mentioned, at its finest when depicting an old guy named Earl whom the protagonist meets at a local sexual cruising spot (a boat ramp again? Hello? Are we just dying for a dance with Laura Law?) and visits regularly to watch Turner Classics or listen to opera records. Despite the fact that he is circling the drain from the start it is this single character who provides the book with its best and brightest elements. Also, unlike the protagonist, Earl is clear-eyed, rational, and accepting of the un-fabulous but inescapable final act of life. The protagonist seems discomfited by this and at one point says, "In other words he was a calm and rational man - not a vain hysteric like myself". Ah-men to that...
I recently saw Andrew Holleran being interviewed in a You Tube video. He seemed like a rather sweet-natured and humble gay man ... with hidden and quite proficient claws I suspect. The protagonist in this book similarly seems also a mixture of superficial affability and normality coinciding with an undercurrent of rage against the unfairness of ageing, life as a gay man, and death. The way the character depicts his parents and his obligation to them in their last years of life suggests some interesting and perhaps less than fabulous family dynamics but the same could be said for most of us.
To be fair, the protagonist does sound a bit vain, but not "hysteric". He sounds depressed by mortality, depressed by the loss of his parents and old friends, and depressed by the loss of his sexual appeal. In other words, honest and accurate though it may be, this is a book about a man who embodies the gay stereotype of the lonely, chronically "thirsty", and therefore tragic gay man, a stereotype that has been milked in movies and books for decades.
I am tired of movies that depict gay men as tragic, movies in which we must always die at the end of either suicide, murder, or something else. I recently saw a much lauded movie called "The Whale". The plot of that movie included not one, but two self-inflicted deaths of gay men. It seems we are living in an era in which screenwriters and writers are doubling up on the tragic elements for the sake of dramatic effect. I have read multiple books in which we gay men are always victims at the end. I cannot, as an older gay man, relate to these stereotypical representations anymore. They are my mother's idea of what the life of a gay man is like, not mine. For all its fine writing quality, this book strikes me as inadvertently sustaining such negative stereotypes.
The most radical thing a writer could do in the 2020s is write a book in which the gay male protagonist is NOT a tragic figure. This is why I consider E. M. Forster's "Maurice" to be the most radical gay novel ever written : it actually has a happy ending ! Nevertheless, I shall make it clear that I am a fan of anything Andrew Holleran writes. I buy every new book he writes the same way I buy every album Pet Shop Boys make. I just long for him to depart from the tragic figures for once and challenge him to write about that which is all too rare in fiction: a happy and healthy gay man who is neither a victim of homophobic men, "haters", society, politicians, terminal illness, nor (and most of all) ... himself.
We gay men are no longer in victim mode.
12 people found this helpful
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A Reader
3.0 out of 5 stars Loneliness and impending loss
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2022
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I recently read the author's beautiful (and similarly themed) novel GRIEF, which was a brief, sad, lovely book. It dovetails with this most recent creation that goes further, delving into the quietly disturbing isolation of an aging man who's lost his mother, who now lives alone in her house in Florida, keeping time with another isolated friend, both gay, closeted and elderly, who seems to have more company, even as his end comes. This is a sad, deeply melancholic book (more like several short stories and a longer novella in the middle, vaguely linked), endlessly swirling a very slow drain towards an old man's end. It repeats itself constantly, which is probably the point, this idea that their lives go nowhere, turning the same circle again and again. But it can be frustrating to read, perhaps needed editing. (How many trips to the post office does this man take, and why? He says he has a mailbox. How many walks through the dry lake bed? How many references to old movies, in great detail?) The final chapter -- a short story, with no reference to the previous novella -- seems like a strange tag, something an editor might have suggested, a final snapshot of loneliness and the way some people find their only company with strangers, in Walgreens. I admired the writing more than I enjoyed it. It is a story of spiritual and bodily dying, of loneliness and isolation. Of friendship, I suppose, though even that seems empty. It's incredibly depressing. Some of you will put this down before the end, I suspect.
5 people found this helpful
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James Crawford
5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Reading
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2022
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While everyone has their own story, as a 75 year old gay man I found much to relate to in this novel. The issues faced by aging single people, gay or straight, are presented with compassion and caring. If I have any criticism, it would be that it is difficult, if not impossible, to follow the time-line. We know that time is passing but we don't necessarily have a feeling for the interval between the relevant events. Christmas seems to be the only concession to a time-line. After following our narrator through the events of his life for several years, unfortunately, we do not know what happens to him as he grows older and older. One thing which stuck me, and this may be a Florida thing, is the use of "live oak" to describe the trees as if there is a significant population of dead oaks in Florida and the fact that the oak is still alive needs to be mentioned. I just found this unusual but it does not distract from the very poignant story.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

DOUGLAS L GOLD
1.0 out of 5 stars DONT DO IT
Reviewed in Canada on August 7, 2022
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On the list of the WORST books of 2022.
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Henry Levinson
4.0 out of 5 stars Good read, but received misprint copy
Reviewed in Germany on June 20, 2023
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Book itself is amazing, however my copy was printed back to front! Incredibly difficult to actually do what one does with a book - leisurely read!
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Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars A book that is hard to put down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 4, 2022
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It is hard to conceive of a book, whose central theme is death, that is also a page-turner. But The Kingdom of Sand is exactly that. Its first-person narrator is not Holleran but the book is clearly autobiographical in that its evocation of time and place, and its characters, both friends and family, are evidently drawn from life.
Set largely in Florida, the book is about family, friendship, loneliness and the one certainty of our lives: their end. It is a poignant but unpitying portrayal of the road to old age and death, all the more enthralling for its realism. At its heart is the friendship between the narrator and his neighbour, Earl, twenty years his senior, a relationship that centres on shared enjoyment of old films. The fiction of the fils is often a metaphor for real life. Here, Holleran's writing is vivid, evocative, sympathetic and frequently wittily wry.
Edmund White apparently told Holleran that he could find only two life-affirming in the book: Earl and the weather. The weather, benign and otherwise, is a constant backdrop, creating an atmosphere in which the lives in a town in northern Florida are brought to life.
Both the narrator, and Earl, are homosexual and there are wonderfully matter-of-fact, but also often funny, references to what remains of active gay life. This is a book that is almost Proustian in its ability to capture your attention and imagination. by showing the significant in the superficially mundane.
Younger readers may find it takes them to a land they know they will one day enter but have no desire to explore. For those of us who are older, gay or straight, it cannot fail to resonate with great emotional power.
3 people found this helpful
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Mr. D. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Accepting old age
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2023
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Being a fan of his books , when I’d heard he’d written a new one I ordered it, what a great book, 3 days & id read it, couldn’t put it down.
As a gay man on the wrong side of 50 a lot of it struck a chord with me, is this going to be my life at some point, & if it is I’m gonna make sure I dam well enjoy it, just like the main character.
Seriously good book, laughed, cried at times, but on the whole a truly excellent read.
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Otter
2.0 out of 5 stars A memoir that should have had a better editor
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2022
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A series of short memoirs. Each alone could have used a better editor. Together, repetition of information is appropriate for an old person's memoir. I imagine the man closing his own coffin lid. It lacks the artistry of other Florida writers, even those old at the time of writing. Nonetheless, it fairly represents North Central Florida, a land that time forgot, passed over first by highways then by airplanes. Even the depiction of gay life in its isolation is supremely isolated by the genre of memoir; there is scant contextual information, even of the slightly more lively Gainesville, or, the large but desolate Jacksonville airport to give the author's Keystone Heights the colour it seems to be dying to present.
(I have synaesthesia. Reading this book, the colours brown, black, and burnt-grass green were ever present. This book is well worth the read; but, read Andrew Holleran's other books first.)
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