Matthew Kneale's writing is deeply rooted in historical exploration, examining the intricate connections between past events and their enduring impact on contemporary lives. He brings a keen eye for detail and a narrative flair to his exploration of historical contexts. His prose invites readers to consider the echoes of history in the present day. Kneale's work offers a compelling perspective on how the past continues to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world.
Determined to prove the literal truth of the Bible, the Reverend Wilson sets out from England, in the summer of 1857, to find the Garden of Eden, convinced it lies on the island of Tasmania. Unknown to him, others in his party have very different agendas.
A fascinating history of the city of Rome, seen through the eyes of its most significant sackings, from the Gauls to the Nazis and everything in between.
A warm and affectionate portrait of a city and a people under lockdown during the Covid-19 crisis, from the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Rome: A History in Seven Sackings.
The year 1289. A rich farmer fears he'll go to hell for cheating his neighbours. His wife wants pilgrim badges to sew into her hat and show off at church. A poor, ragged villager is convinced his beloved cat is suffering in the fires of purgatory and must be rescued. A mother is convinced her son's dangerous illness is punishment for her own adultery and seeks forgiveness so he may be cured. A landlord is in trouble with the church after he punched an abbot on the nose. A sexually driven noblewoman seeks a divorce so she can marry her new young beau. These are among a group of pilgrims that sets off on the tough and dangerous journey from England to Rome, where they hope all their troubles will be answered. Some in the party who have their own, secret reasons for going. Matthew Kneale is the author of English Passengers and Rome: A History in Seven Sackings. His new novel, Pilgrims, is a riveting, sweeping narrative that shows medieval society in a new light, as a highly rule-bound, legalistic world, though religious fervour and the threat of violence are never far below the surface. Told by multiple narrators, Pilgrims has much to say about Englishness, then and now.
The man of his family, nine-year-old Lawrence watches protectively over his mother and little sister, especially when, feeling endangered by their estranged father, his mother decides the three of them must leave their life in England to seek refuge in Rome, where, although short of money, they build a new life, until the trouble that brought them to Italy returns. 20,000 first printing.
An engineer's obsessive quest to find the cause of a cholera epidemic takes him on a journey from the glittering cafes of Haymarket to the crime-infested slums of London. What he finds there, amid the poverty and death, shatters his ideals and strikes at everything he holds dear.
An East–West culture clash beats at the heart of this wry first novel by Matthew Kneale—author of English Passengers, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award.
A captivating, thought-provoking road trip through a rapidly changing Europe in the 1930s from the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Sweet Thames and Rome: A History in Seven Sackings.
