May We Feed the King: The Booker-Shortlisted Medieval Novel Explained

What happens when a king has no desire to rule and the person trying to tell his story can never be certain what really happened? Rebecca Perry’s debut novel May We Feed the King connects a precarious medieval court with a present-day curator who reconstructs historical rooms. On September 22, 2026, it was named one of six finalists for the 2026 Booker Prize. It had already won the 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. The Booker Prize’s shortlist announcement confirms its place among the finalists.

The premise makes it sound like a court intrigue: a reluctant monarch inherits the throne after his older brothers die, and whispers spread that he is unfit to wear the crown. Yet Perry is equally interested in the person piecing together that reign centuries later. Here is what the book is about, why its unusual structure matters, and what readers should know before picking it up. This introduction avoids major plot spoilers.

What is May We Feed the King about?

In the contemporary storyline, an unnamed curator dresses the rooms of historic buildings. She arranges fabrics, furniture and replica food to suggest that the people who lived there have only just stepped away. A commission involving the private quarters of a medieval palace draws her into the life of a nearly forgotten king. As she works with the traces he left, the distance between the past she reconstructs and the present she inhabits begins to feel less secure. Transit Books’ synopsis describes the curator’s work and the palace commission.

The other storyline takes readers to the king’s court. He never expected to rule: the deaths of his two older brothers put him on the throne. He has little hunger for power, but that reluctance becomes dangerous when members of the court begin questioning his fitness. If the court decides it wants a different ruler, his personal wishes may count for very little. The Booker Prize reading guide identifies the king and the unnamed curator as the novel’s two central figures.

That setup gives the book two forms of suspense. One concerns what will happen to the monarch. The other concerns what anyone in the present can truly know about him from surviving evidence. Readers looking for a named historical monarch or a straightforward retelling of a documented reign should know that the court is deliberately unnamed; the book works as historical fiction about how stories of the past are made.

Why does the curator’s storyline matter?

The curator’s work is a useful way into the novel’s central question. A room staged for visitors may look convincing, but someone has chosen every object and decided how to arrange it. A feast on a table can suggest an entire evening even when the original people, food and conversation have vanished.

Perry applies that problem to writing history. A record can preserve a fact, a rumor or somebody’s judgment. Put enough fragments together and a life begins to look coherent. But the apparent completeness belongs partly to the person arranging the fragments. My reading of the premise is that the curator is a stand-in for both the historian and the novelist: she gives the past a form while knowing that some parts must remain out of reach. The Booker judges specifically highlighted the novel’s shifts in perspective and its challenge to the idea of one settled historical truth in their shortlist commentary.

The replica food is especially striking. It makes a vanished meal feel present without being edible. That tension between a vivid reconstruction and an absence underneath it helps explain the book’s interest in desire, memory and what survives. It also gives the novel a distinctive visual world beyond the familiar imagery of crowns and battles.

What kind of king is at the center of the book?

The king is compelling because he does not seem to want what his position offers. In a court built around succession, force and displays of authority, his reluctance can be interpreted as weakness. Gossip begins to shape his reputation, and the possibility of replacing him hangs over the story. The Booker reading guide describes him as an elusive figure whom readers often encounter through other people’s observations rather than an uncomplicated account of his inner life.

That opens a more interesting question than whether he is a “good” or “bad” ruler: Who gets to define a great king? A courtier, a subject, a later chronicler and a modern curator might each tell a different story about the same person. The novel’s structure invites readers to watch those interpretations form. It also suggests how easily someone who resists an expected role can be judged through the expectations of others.

Perry has said in a Booker Prize interview that she wanted to write historical fiction somewhat outside the genre. She cited memory, agency, imagination, power and responsibility among the questions that shaped the novel. Those concerns help explain why the medieval story and the curator’s present-day work belong together.

Why was May We Feed the King shortlisted for the Booker Prize?

The Booker Prize announced the six-book shortlist on September 22, 2026. Perry’s novel sits alongside The End of Everything by M. John Harrison, The Disappearers by Marlon James, Black Bag by Luke Kennard, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout and John of John by Douglas Stuart. The official announcement describes Perry as a debut novelist whose historical fiction features a reluctant monarch.

The judges’ discussion of Perry’s book points to its shifts between the modern curator and the medieval court, the layered way its story unfolds, and its refusal to offer one simple historical truth. That is a more useful guide to its appeal than the nomination alone: this is a book for readers who enjoy atmosphere and court tension but also want to question the story they are being told.

The shortlist is recognition, not a win. As of September 23, the 2026 Booker winner has not been announced; the prize’s winner announcement is scheduled for November 9, 2026.

Who is Rebecca Perry?

May We Feed the King is Perry’s debut novel, but she had published poetry and creative nonfiction before it. Her poetry collections include Beauty/Beauty and Stone Fruit, and her nonfiction book On Trampolining appeared in 2023. Her debut novel won the 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize before making the Booker shortlist. The Booker Prize author guideand Granta author listing document that background.

In the Booker interview, Perry explained that the curator and a young attendant to a dying king began as characters in separate short stories before she recognized that their worlds belonged in one novel. That origin is a useful clue to its design: two seemingly different lives become more revealing when placed beside each other.

When was the book published?

Granta lists the UK edition as published on January 29, 2026. In North America, Transit Books lists a September 29, 2026 publication date. That means the novel is already available in the UK as of this article’s date, while its North American edition is scheduled to arrive shortly after the shortlist announcement. Edition details can vary by region. Granta and Transit Books provide the respective dates.

Should you read it?

Try May We Feed the King if you like literary historical fiction, unusual narrative structures, unreliable fragments of the past, or stories that ask what power does to someone who never sought it. The curator’s meticulous room displays offer a fresh entry point into the medieval setting. Readers hoping for a fast, linear account of a real named king may find its gaps and changes of perspective more demanding; those gaps are part of the book’s purpose.

The most intriguing hook is the distance between a life and the neat story later generations want to make of it. A reluctant king can become an object of gossip while he lives and an exhibit after he dies. Perry’s novel asks what survives each transformation and what disappears when a complicated person is reduced to a role.

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