ABOUT:

The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead” in this big-hearted, boundlessly beautiful romp through the Apocalypse, where a foul-mouthed crow is humanity’s only chance to survive Seattle’s zombie problem (Karen Joy Fowler, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author).

S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (i.e. “those idiots”), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ®.

But when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something’s not quite right. His tried-and-true remedies — from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim’s loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis — fail to cure Big Jim’s debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he suddenly discovers that the neighbors are devouring one other. Local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of Seattle’s dangerous new predators.

Humanity’s extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV.
What could possibly go wrong?

Kira Kane Buxton‘s Hollow Kingdom is available now in paperback. Purchase your copy here.

Join Kira for a free Virtual Summer Reading Adventure on August 2, 2020, hosted by the Carlsbad City Library in partnership with Adventures by the Book. Details and registration information here.

PRAISE AND RECOGNITION

Hollow Kingdom is a nature book for our own age, an exuberant, glittering, hard-hitting mashup of Dawn of the Dead and The Incredible Journey. It’s an adventure lit by strange myths, brand-names, television and smartphone screens, a fable with teeth and claws about animals making new lives amongst the ruins of humanity. It’s transformative, poignant, and funny as hell. S.T. the irrepressible, cursing crow is my new favourite apocalyptic hero.”―Helen Macdonald, New York Times bestselling author of H Is for Hawk

“A plucky hero, a boisterous tale, startling prose and eerie events combine for a thoroughly enjoyable account of the end of the world as we know it. The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead.”―Karen Joy Fowler, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“I love this book so much! I wanted to set it on fire while hugging it. I wanted to hasten the apocalypse just to see how my own pets fare in a more humane world without humans. Kira Jane Buxton’s voice is fresh, like a newly dug grave, but so joyful and honest you’ll laugh out loud, and then check to make sure you haven’t lost an eyeball. Hollow Kingdom is a wildly original debut and a paean to my favorite city.”―Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hollow Kingdom offers a bird’s-eye view of the apocalypse we all want and need-especially when the bird in question is a plucky, Cheeto-loving domesticated crow . . . With infinite heart and humor, Kira Jane Buxton’s fine-feathered narrator guides us through richly imagined animal realms while braving the terrifying collapse of the human world. A dazzling, wholly original debut, revealing the great paradox of humanity’s fatal flaws and resilient spirit.”―Mona Awad, author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny

“Everything you’re hearing about Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom–that it’s wildly original and inventive, funny and profane–is wonderfully true. But even better, this book is timely, smart, movingly written, and beautifully concluded.”―Laurie Frankel, author of This is How It Always Is and member of the Seattle7 Writers

“What a surprising, funny, terrifying, marvelous, wholly original novel! Buxton combines a vivid horror show (think zombies and the gruesome, bloody extinction of man) with a touching love story between the unlikeliest of BFFs: a crow, a hound, and a man who’s had a tough go of things on Tinder, and that was before his eyeball fell out. With humor and a style that brings to mind Tom Robbins and Karen Russell, Buxton’s debut is heartwarming and heart stopping, hilarious and tragic.”―Amy Poeppel, author of Limelight and Small Admissions

AUTHOR VISITS:

Author visits with Kira Jane Buxton are available via NovelNetwork.com.