PAUL KINGSNORTH
NON-FICTION
One No, Many Yeses
Real England
Uncivilisation: the Dark Mountain Manifesto (with Dougald Hine)
Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist
FICTION
The Wake
Beast
POETRY
Kidland and other poems
Songs from the Blue River
“Paul Kingsnorth’s books have such a profound affect on me that I always feel I must make them into a play or a film or something after reading them. In a world of such confusing news and opinion, I always find a story in Paul’s writing that leads me to an authentic place in the world.” —Mark Rylance
SAVAGE GODS
“Horrible and brilliant and terribly important. This book is what I’ve been looking for for years, and what I’d hoped never to see.”
—Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast
“Savage Gods is a compromise of a book, veering between inner and outer worlds, shape-shifting from narrative to aphorism to vision. But tidiness is indisposed to containing multitudes, and there’s a price to pay in retaining them. Kingsnorth’s troublesome words do an unexpectedly moving job of capturing the problem of being, and of writing about it.”
—Nina Lyon, The Spectator
“What ultimately makes Savage Gods a success is Kingsnorth’s passion. His honest probing of himself is the real strength of this book. He is a man bearing everything. And for all the confessional memoirs so popular at the moment, this is the real deal.”
—Scott Beauchamp, The American Conservative
“Paul Kingsnorth has always held my attention, and at times completely astounded me with his varied and vital writing talent. This spectacular little volume is a book all about that writing talent, but discussions of process and craft are secondary to a more ontological exploration of what writing really is… and what it very much isn’t.”
—Mark Schultz, Carmichael’s Bookstore, Louisville, Kentucky
“An enigma of a book, Savage Gods takes a long hard look at the creative process of writing as well as deep, philosophical questions of purpose, place, and belonging… honest in a way few books ever are.”
—Caleb Masters, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
THE WAKE
“Rhythmic, angry, darkly funny and at times poetic.”
—Jennifer Maloney, The Wall Street Journal
“Like Tolkien’s and Martin’s books, The Wake presents the reader with an immersive experience… What sharply distinguishes it is its disorienting use of high literary experiment and its insistence on uncertainty.”
—Laura Marsh, Bookforum
“Kingsnorth’s daring linguistic conceit… propels a tale that feels strangely contemporary in its concern for what is lost when a social order perishes.”
—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Book Review
BEAST
“Wild and spectacular.” —Anthony Domestico, The Boston Globe
“Beast cements Kingsnorth’s reputation as a furiously gifted writer.”
—Benedict Cosgrove, The Washington Post
“[Written] with unnerving smoothness and lyricism… [Beast] leads readers away from optimism and realism alike, deeper into a new scrutiny of the stories by which we try to make our way.”
—Kenneth Baker, The San Francisco Chronicle
“On its own, [Beast] is a taut, thrilling and mystifying narrative. Taken in tandem with The Wake, it forms a powerful meditation on violence, society and the nature of exile.”
—Tobias Carroll, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“Kingsnorth is becoming an existential David Mitchell: a versatile weaver of the seemingly unconnected into a tapestry realer than reality.” —Boris Kachka, Vulture
CONFESSIONS OF A RECOVERING ENVIRONMENTALIST AND OTHER ESSAYS
“Kingsnorth’s is a much-needed perspective in the environmental movement, recovering or otherwise.”
—Scott F. Parker, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
“Although he writes about feeling despair, grief, and loss in the face of climate change, Kingsnorth says he has not given up hope—only what he perceives as false hope.” —Michael Berry, Sierra Magazine
“A brilliant and sobering collection recommended for anyone, liberal or conservative, concerned about the runaway train of climate change.” —Booklist
WHO WE ARE TWO DOLLAR RADIO is a family-run outfit dedicated to reaffirming the cultural and artistic spirit of the publishing industry. We aim to do this by presenting bold works of literary merit, each book, individually and collectively, providing a sonic progression that we believe to be too loud to ignore.
SOME RECOMMENDED LOCATIONS FOR READING SAVAGE GODS:
Pretty much anywhere because books are portable and the perfect technology!
ANYTHING ELSE? Yes. Do not copy this book—with the exception of quotes used in critical essays and reviews—without the prior written permission from the copyright holder and publisher. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means.
If only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.
Rilke
There’s more to life than books, you know, but not much more.
The Smiths
Table of Contents