Alive in the Merciful Country

‘Alive in the Merciful Country is an ambitious novel that asks potent questions about abuses of state and personal power … combines a beadily bleak eye with a standup’s comic timing and a profound humanity that breaks open the heart.’ – Guardian‘Prose that soars and swoops like the birds she references … [Kennedy] spins pain into poetry and its glitter is authentic.’ – The Spectator‘Alive In The Merciful Country asks important questions about the nature of justice and mercy.’ – The Scotsman‘An adventurous, often brilliant novelist … a wide-reaching, structurally playful novel.’ – Daily Mail’… provocative, thoughtful and mysterious novel’ – The Observer‘… it’s a page turner with all the elegance of literary fiction.’ – Meath Chronicle 2025 books preview

A. L. Kennedy has won a variety of UK and international book awards, including a Lannan Award, the Costa Prize, the Heinrich Heine Preis, the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rees Prize. She has twice been included on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. She has written ten novels, one of which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, six short story collections, three books of non-fiction and three books for children. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the Akademie der Kunst. She also writes for the stage, screen, TV and has created an extensive body of radio work including documentaries, monologues, dramas and essays. She also performs occasionally in one-person shows and as a stand-up comic.

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