The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow | Granta

  • Published: 25/01/2018
  • ISBN: 9781783783670
  • Granta Books
  • 368 pages

The Earlie King & the Kid in Yellow

Danny Denton

Ireland is flooded, derelict. It never stops raining. The Kid in Yellow has stolen the babba from the Earlie King. Why? Something to do with the King’s daughter, and a talking statue, something godawful. And from every wall the King’s Eye watches. And yet the city is full of hearts-defiant-sprayed in yellow, the mark of the Kid.

It cannot end well. Can it? Follow the Kid, hear the tale. Roll up! Roll up!

A dystopian baroque, postmodern fairy tale, with gangsters, eternal rain and a contested baby... The world that Denton creates is thrillingly realised

Fred Melnyczuk, Financial Times

What a book. Absolutely marvellous

Cillian Murphy

The Earlie King and the Kid in Yellow combines a gritty dystopian Irish gangster saga with a relentlessly inventive exploration of storytelling and myth. Kevin Barry meets Blade Runner meets, dare I say it, Joyce. Pure genius

Best books of 2018 selected by Ruth Gilligan, Irish Independent

The Author

Danny Denton is a writer from Cork, Ireland. He has been awarded several bursaries and scholarships for his work, and has published work in various journals. This is his first novel.

More about the author →

Danny Denton on Granta.com

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

The Best Books of 2017: Dogtooth & The Giving Light

Danny Denton

Danny Denton on why Fran Lock’s Dogtooth and Gavin Corbett’s The Giving Light are the best books of 2017.

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

Danny Denton | Notes on Craft

Danny Denton

‘My tuppence on craft is this: as a writer, you must give your reader space to experience the world of your story (whatever form it takes)’

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

Faltering Song

Danny Denton

‘Didn’t we remember lyrics fine before we had the internet in our pockets?’ Danny Denton on the lost art of sing-songing.