The Lobster Kings
ABOUT
THE BOOK
The Kings family has lived on Loosewood Island for three hundred years, blessed with the bounty of the sea. But for the Kings, this blessing comes with a curse: the loss of every first-born son. Now, Woody Kings, the leader of the island’s lobster fishing community and the family patriarch, teeters on the throne, and Cordelia, the oldest of Woody’s three daughters, stands to inherit the crown. To do so, however, she must defend her island against meth dealers from the mainland, while navigating sibling rivalry and the vulnerable nature of her own heart when she falls in love with her sternman. Inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear, The Lobster Kings is the story of Cordelia’s struggle to maintain her island’s way of life in the face of danger from offshore, and the rich, looming, mythical legacy of her family’s namesake.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
The Lobster Kings fulfils the promise of author Alexi Zentner’s first novel. Zentner combines many skilfully developed elements, presenting the reader with that “rare tale that has everything you could possibly want – mystery, mythology, poetry, action and heart” (Alison Pick, author). In addition, the maritime setting speaks compellingly to both Canadian and American Eastern Seaboard sensibilities.