The Pretender: A Novel

"This book is a masterclass – it encapsulates everything I love about historical fiction. It’s witty and immersive, full of atmosphere, and full of character. You’ll be transported to the 15th century in a way that feels effortless and easy and absolutely real, and find yourself on the streets and in the courts of Europe without the breadth of the research ever feeling heavy or imposed. But the reason I think it’s truly brilliant, and shout about it to anyone who will listen, is because Harkin takes the idea of a ‘pretender’ to the throne, and gives us a jaw-droppingly good exploration of identity that is profoundly contemporary. The world of the small boy at its heart is constantly turned on its head, all his roots lost, his relationships ruptured, as the men around him move him like a pawn from peasant to king and back again on the tide of political whim. It’s tender, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and brilliantly modern. Absolutely. I know so little about that period, and didn’t even hugely feel the call to it before I picked up the book, but it’s so deftly done that you can’t help but find a joy in the bawdiness, bloodiness and stink of the era. It left me feeling moved by the ruthlessness of the period, and rather miraculously manages to explore something super tricky – how it might be to live in a world which is significantly different from ours – while compromising neither on how different it was nor on our ability to connect with it. Not easy to do."