The Broken King

‘Entirely mesmerizing’ New York Times

‘It has the power… to break one’s heart’ Wall Street Journal

‘Baldwin’s worthy heir… Utterly immersive’ Francisco Goldman

‘Extraordinary… Sears and sings with terrible, beautiful honesty’ Helen Macdonald

‘Michael Thomas has written a truly extraordinary memoir, one that sears and sings with such terrible, beautiful honesty it will burn its way deep into your bones.?The Broken King?is a book for now, but feels like it’s always been part of the world in the way only great literature does. This hardscrabble lyric masterpiece is funny and brutal, soaring and chthonic. A triumph, and reading it will leave you changed. It’s genuinely one of the most extraordinary and magical books I have ever read. I’m full of awe.’ Helen Macdonald, bestselling author of H Is for Hawk

‘A life of rage and despair, told in a memoir full of beauty… Michael Thomas recounts his struggles, successes and fraught family history in mesmerizing detail… With a virtuosic command of language and an eagle eye for punishing detail, Thomas has rendered beautifully an excruciating existence from which it is impossible to turn away.’ New York Times

‘Nearly 20 years after his acclaimed first novel,?Man Gone Down, Thomas returns with this harrowing self-portrait. Attempting to untangle what made him a “hard man,” he combs through his hardscrabble Boston childhood and profiles the men in his family with a poet’s eye and a clinician’s intellect. The result is arresting, unforgettable, and even, by the end, hopeful.’ Publishers’ Weekly, ‘Best Books 2025’



‘[An] entirely mesmerizing memoir … with a virtuosic command of language and an eagle eye for punishing detail, Thomas has rendered beautifully an excruciating existence from which it is impossible to turn away … And yet, it would be misleading to end with the impression that?The Broken King?is not a hopeful story. Its very existence, the fact that its harrowing events were witnessed and recorded, amounts to an extraordinary display of human will and resilience.’ New York Times Book Review

‘A persistently intense, raw reckoning with the generations of trauma in his family and with his own struggles as an artist and father.’ Washington Post

‘A book that grows more affecting the longer one spends with it, and it has the power, in the end, to break one’s heart … Mr. Thomas’ account of realizing he was ‘insane’ can stand alongside such harrowing accounts as William Styron’s Darkness Visible and Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted’ Wall Street Journal

‘A prize-winning writer’s anguish … Thomas believes that one way to keep ‘from falling into darkness’ is to try ‘to make something beautiful.’ This book hits the mark … A powerful memoir of childhood trauma, literary success, and mental illness.’ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

‘Novelist Thomas makes his nonfiction debut with a haunting and poetic profile of the men in his family … Thomas’s memories and reflections accumulate into a poignant and potent mosaic, chronicling his attempts to overcome family dysfunction and fumble his way toward stability. It’s a stirring achievement.’ Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

‘Absorbing … Intimate … Thomas is a captivating writer, infusing his passages with turns of phrase and language that are at once powerful and delicate, always encompassing the complexity of Black fatherhood and elegantly dissecting the consequences of societal pressure. For fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates.’ Booklist (starred review)

‘By turns raw and lyrical, captivating and vexing, The Broken King is vivid testament to the damage wrought by personal and generational trauma—and to the power of art to lay bare what cannot otherwise be said.’ Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Candy House

‘The Broken King?is one of the most harrowing, heartbreaking, and stunningly written books I’ve ever read: a flat-out brilliant memoir that reads like a psychological thriller. Michael Thomas uses his immense skill as a novelist to summon vivid scenes from throughout his life as he explores the racial chasm that is our broken nation and the darkest corridors of his own mind. As he grapples with how to be a son, brother, husband, and father, Thomas creates a love story that is especially poignant coming from a man who believes he has only ever been able to express love in retrospect—and yet who has written a beautiful work overflowing with love.’ Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

Michael Thomas is the author of Man Gone Down, winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a New York Times ‘Top Ten Book of the Year’. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, and A Public Space. He is a professor of English at Hunter College. He lives in Brooklyn.

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