Guardian reviews Donal Ryan's 'Where Are the Kings' as grief-time fiction in a temporal wave

The Guardian reviewed Donal Ryan's 'Where Are the Kings' (Penguin Random House, US$28.00 hardcover) on 2026-08-19, placing it among a wave of temporal-themed novels by Kaliane Bradley, Toshikazu Kawaguchi and others. Ryan's distinction: time as grief distorts it, not science fiction. The reviewer compared it favourably to Paul Murray's Booker-shortlisted 'The Bee Sting'.