We are wrong about plastic fruit, and possibly tenderness. Rebecca Perry’s enigmatic novel renders both in surprising detail through striking lean paragraphs which feel, appropriately, like peeking through a window into a fascinating and strange room. May We Feed The King follows a curator who is dressing the rooms of a former palace for its 750th anniversary. While researching the former inhabitants of the building she loses herself in the life of a former king who had little appetite for rule. I gobbled the book up in a flash.

Jack, Unity Books auckland