Blood Kin - Softcover

A superb character study... An Orwellian fable that is as masterful as it is entertaining. A notable debut, perfectly formed. * Sunday Business Post * An excellently sculpted indictment of avarice, lust and human misery. * Glasgow Herald * Tense and dramatic... Dovey draws strong, vivid characters and her keen eye for signposting detail...gives a sensual counterpoint to the ruthless logic of her subtly heralded denouement. -- James Urquhart * Independent * The prose is sensuous and restrained, the gaze piercing and relentless. Dovey exposes not only the arrogance of power, but also the human heart's dark adoration of the powerful. -- Hisham Matar * Observer * Ceridwen Dovey's mesmerising novel lifts the lid on a dictatorship and its perilous aftermath... Although it's tightly controlled, there is a hypnotic, languorous feel to the writing - even as the conclusion circles with the impatience of vultures over carrion. -- Catherine Taylor * Guardian *

Shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize A chef, a portraitist and a barber are taken hostage in a coup to overthrow their boss, the President. They are held captive in a palatial retreat in the mountains high above the capital city. Far below them, chaos tears through the streets. The chef's daughter, the portraitist's wife and the barber's lover watch their men from the shadows. In such precarious times, intimate relationships are as dangerous as political ones. As the old order falls, so does the veil that hides the truth about these men and women's secret passions. Drawing her readers masterfully towards the novel's devastating climax, Ceridwen Dovey reveals how humanity's most atavistic impulses - vanity, vengeance and greed - seethe, relentlessly, just beneath the veneer of civility.