Thine Is The Kingdom

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When young Gavin Blake returns to his island home to claim his right to citizenship he is stonewalled. He discovers that the only way forward is through bribery. Confronted with the stark irony of having to do something illegal to become legal he finds he must make a choice. While he weighs his options, Gavin takes a job on the yacht of a wealthy young local called Jacob Thesinger who lives in an old colonial seaside home and who sees himself as the defender of the island's culture and history while crime and corruption threaten him.

A local fisherman who uses the abandoned property next door as a base and moors his boat directly in the path of Thesinger's yacht becomes the focus of Thesinger's rage. Neither man respects the other, nor the other's property, and they are set headlong towards a confrontation which comes as Gavin Blake is forced to make his final choice and which leads ultimately to death.

This is a novel that explores the nature of class and identity in the post-colonial world through a narrative rich in imagery and wrought in a confident, graceful prose. Both a tale of adventure and a story of conflict Thine is the Kingdom reveals the inner lives of Buckner's characters and in so doing implicates us all in one man's struggle to do the right thing.