Sea Level

Poseidon, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, New York,1992

Sea Level is a brilliant and profoundly affecting novel about a man in mid-life struggling to come to terms with his father's death, the women in his life, and the pain and puzzle of human existence. Moving with extraordinary skill and beauty across continents, between past and present, from inner reality to outer event, it is the story of Bill Bender, a sensual, troubled, imperfect man, and his fraying connections to the people he loves, his work as an international do-gooder, and his London past.

From Pakistan to Polynesia, his drama is enacted against a fascinating international background with a powerfully realized cast of characters. Among them are Han, Bender's fiercely amoral Chinese lover, a woman of great erotic power; Akira, his eccentric Japanese colleague, crazed by whisky and his inability to comprehend the doublespeak of foreign aid; the elderly, ailing Mr Yamada, embodying impenetrable cultural mysteries; and Bender's father, a self-effacing London milkman of limited horizons, whose death shakes him in ways that surprise him, and in whom he comes uneasily to recognize a reflection of himself. (from the Poseidon edition)

“Roger King is a novelist of great range and depth. There is a stirring, pure compassion in his work, and a stubborn pursuit of the heart‘s mysteries. He rushes through an exotic damaged world, to arrive at the unexplainable silences within each of us. He has made a rich beautiful book.”
—Charlie Smith

“A unique and powerful novel, immensely touching. I recommend it highly.”
—Richard Selzer

“A work at once exotic and mannered, calm and ravenous. Roger King is a terrific writer.”
—Brett Lott

"Sea Level is subtle, painful and resonantly real."
—Rosellen Brown

"An astonishing and masterful novel."
—Andrea Barrett

"A vivid, richly detailed, immensely satisfying novel."
—Eric Kraft

The New York Times:
“This beautifully worked novel is told from the vantage point of a man who has reached the end of everything: his married life; his affair with a shrewd erotic mistress; his career, even the ends of the earth.”
—Alexandra Enders

The New Yorker:
This dense, fully conceived novel…one senses the impressive breadth and depth of Mr. King’s intelligence.”

Chicago Tribune:
“Pithy, intelligent .”

Kirkus Reviews:
“Ambitious and intelligent.”

Publishers Weekly:
“Elegaic and intelligent.”