"Why does the sea have this effect, stroking sadness, deepening it, taking away its dangerous edge? The sea breathed and he visualised its ritual from his long day's watching. Far out where the sand started, the deceitful calm reared into glassy ridges which glided precarious towards the beach, a late deference to gravity. Another crash, a hiss. Kangaba."
—from Written on a Stranger's Map
CURRENT PROJECTS
MAN PICKS FLOWER (NOVEL, FORTHCOMING FROM REGAL HOUSE PUBLISHING)
Deva, a singer from Brazil, and John, an older American man retired from intelligence, are separately brought to a London penthouse to help a rich Pakistani man recover his memory after a car accident. The three become a loving family, the traumas in Deva’s and John’s histories are exposed and healed, and their connection is discovered. Then their affectionate Pakistani host remembers that he was planning to kill them. Learn more here.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF LOVE (NOVEL)
Imagined characters, characters drawn from life, and characters borrowed from Galsworthy’s Forstye novels, collide to make a single story of the entire industrial era, from stolid English peasants to American camgirls living on the brink of climate catastrophe. Learn more here.
HOTTER (TV DRAMA SERIES)
With Courtney Cease (ex- State Department Climate Policy)
Influential young climate change experts from around the world make a secret pact to betray their governments for the sake of saving the planet.
The Outline and a Pilot Episode are available from the author or the film agent: Matthew Snyder at Creative Artists Agency (link to CAA)
A GIRL FROM ZANZIBAR (FEATURE FILM SCREENPLAY)
The film adaptation of the novel has been in and out of development by production companies for over a decade. Screenplay enquiries to Matthew Snyder at Creative Artists Agency
NOVELS
LOVE AND FATIGUE IN AMERICA
“In this wry and subtle autobiographical novel, Roger King maps the territory of his inner life onto the American continent. The genre-crossing result is, like the work of W.G. Sebald, surprising and dazzling.”
—ANDREA BARRETT, winner of the National Book Award
“What finally offers solace and meaning here…is compassion. The narrative expertly cobbles together unexpected moments of poetry, meditations and vignettes which…sing with triumph.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“[T]his moving autobiographical novel… brings into relief many of America’s follies and excesses.”
—The New Yorker
A GIRL FROM ZANZIBAR
“An explosion of a novel, a fictional tornado whirling through contemporary chaos.”
—Shirley Hazzard
“Why isn’t that Iraqi doctor practicing medicine? Why is he running a popular cafe in London’s Bayswater district? He must be a political refugee…
Alarming events are filtered through the mind of the title character in Roger King’s fourth novel, A Girl From Zanzibar—a naïve, ambitious and beautiful young illegal immigrant. Marcella D’Souza is a wonderful invention, a latter-day Candide.…
There is no safe haven, this brilliantly prescient novel suggests, and nothing to hold onto. For better or worse, we are all migrants now.”
—Suzanne Ruta in THE NEW YORK TIMES
SEA LEVEL
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.
In “this dense, fully conceived novel…one senses the impressive breadth and depth of Mr. King’s intelligence.”
—THE NEW YORKER
WRITTEN ON
A STRANGER’S MAP
An intelligent and moving novel of Africa today: its people and problems, its violence and corruption. It is the story of a decent, fallible man, enmeshed in passion and revolution.
“Luminous clarity” —THE GUARDIAN
“Written in taut resonant prose, this is a commmittedly powerful book.” —PUBLISHING NEWS
“The characters come alive at a touch.” —THE LONDON NEWS
HORIZONTAL HOTEL
“[Horizontal Hotel] will appeal to those who like to be kept guessing, who neither expect not want a novel to flag its style, tone and message from the first page…The African scene, the human groupings within it, are excellently done. All is trembling on the edge of breakdown, yet the writing stays cool; the effect is of a quiet delirium.”
—Norman Schrapnel in THE GUARDIAN
FILMS
SACRED FUTURES
Producer and Writer
This short documentary, which premiered in February 2021, looks at an organization of indigenous peoples that approach the future in a way that can inspire those concerned by climate change and pollution.
STILL, THE CHILDREN
ARE HERE
“Invaluable and gorgeous.” —NEW YORK MAGAZINE
“[Lends] an elegant air to a classic documentary subject.” —THE NEW YORKER
”A beautiful film.” —NEWSDAY
“Intimate scenes create a clearer, deeper understanding of the difficulties of tradition and change.” —FILM FORWARD
“Beautfully shot… Remarkably cohesive… Portrays a rich way of life and how it’s now threatened by agricultural development and outside market forces.” —TV GUIDE