★★★★☆ | Book 68 of 2024
The Oxenbridge King by Christine Paice is an intricate interweaving of historical fiction with the 21st century that deals with life’s big certainties, love, death, grief, truth, and family. In the beginning, the book follows a young man named Deadalus, a monk at the Abbey of Stern in the late 15th century during the end of the reign of King Richard III before his defeat at the battle of Bosworth. The narrative follows Daedalus in his heartbreak over the death of his king, and the soul of Richard, stuck in ‘Threadbare’, unable and unwilling to pass to heaven with the guilt and the grief of his choices on his shoulders. Then, we have Molly Stern, the Trembles, and Edward Farraday living in Oxenbridge in 2013, navigating life and loss in the 21st century.
Before battle with your beloved, fortify the body with toast and Marmite.
The story was inspired by the discovery of the bones of Richard III in 2012 under a car park in Leicester, and while the reinterment of the remains certainly does have its place in the book, Richard III acts as this tenuous link between all of our characters, playing a different role in the lives of each of them. You don’t need to know anything about Richard III or English history to enjoy and appreciate all this story has to offer. The narrative is very character driven, which will not be for everyone, but it certainly was for me. Without a doubt, it’s a weird, strange tale full of human emotion, and the best way to enjoy it is to let the story unravel in front of you, because it will all make sense in the end.
They take notice of him without knowing why. His body at peace with all the contradictions it inhabits. Confidence does that. Confidence in purpose, in the corridor of knowing between the outside and inside.
Raven (yes, an actual raven) was undoubtedly my favourite character in this book, and the sheer ingenuity behind the story is a wonder to read. From reading this, I would like to read more of Paice’s work because her prose is enchanting. The seamless transitions between character perspectives gives the narration an intimate quality that allows the reader a front row into the lives of these delightfully English characters. These characters, their thought processes and interactions felt so real, whilst the entire story had a completely unreal, dreamlike quality. A lovely, strange book that I enjoyed immensely!
“Out of all the souls on the battlefield, this one truly believed he was good. So I shows him, in his great and stumbling afterlife, he’s both good king and bad king. It’s a balancing thing.