''Three to See the King'', the third novel by

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

-shortlisted author

Magnus Mills Magnus Mills (born in 1954 in Birmingham) is an English fiction writer and bus driver. He is best known for his first novel, '' The Restraint of Beasts'', which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and praised by Thomas Pynchon. Background Magn ...

, published in 2001, is part

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

and part

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

. Written after the success of his first book, '' The Restraint of Beasts'', brought him into the media limelight, ''Three to See the King'' started out in part as a "project" to prove to himself that he could be a full-time writer. The book was so successful that reviews appeared in '' The Guardian'', '' The Spectator'' and '' The Independent'', and it has been translated into both German as ''Zum König!'' (2004) and French as ''3 pour voir le Roi'' (2005).''The Complete Review'', http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/millsm/threesee.htm, retrieved 28 August 2011.

Plot

The nameless narrator lives in an isolated tin house situated on a windswept sandy plain, miles from his nearest neighbours whom he meets infrequently. He is quite happy in his lonely self-sufficiency until unexpectedly a woman, Mary Petrie, comes to live with him. Unsettled at first, the narrator gradually gets used to the companionship. Then news comes of a new community being established on the edge of the plain by a charismatic, yet enigmatic figure who is digging a canyon and gaining more and more followers to his revolutionary cause. One by one, his neighbours join the canyon project, moving their tin houses to the new community as the narrator feels under increasing pressure to join them. It transpires that the end-goal for the project is not for there to be a city of tin houses, but a city of clay houses. Many of the previously convinced citizens of the plain and beyond are frustrated by this news, and decide to return to their previous existences.

References

External links

''Three to See the King'' at The Complete Review
{{DEFAULTSORT:Three To See The King 2001 British novels Flamingo books