Transit Books publishes Rebecca Perry's 'May We Feed the King'

Rebecca Perry’s debut novel, May We Feed the King, is now available in the United States through Transit Books, a publisher based in Berkeley, California. The book earned a spot on the shortlist for the Booker Prize earlier this year, a distinction that Perry says caught her by surprise.

Perry, who works for a charity promoting literacy in prisons and is a published poet, wrote the novel with no expectation of publication. She described her early sales figures in the United Kingdom as normal for literary fiction before the book received longlist recognition. The critical response accelerated rapidly within a week of that announcement.

The U.S. publication nearly did not happen. Perry credited Marigold Atkey, an editor at Daunt Books in London, for connecting her with the Transit team. Atkey told the Transit editors that no American publisher had expressed interest in the manuscript. Perry noted that Transit acquired the rights before the book received any major critical recognition.

Ashley Nelson Levy, the publisher and editor of the U.S. edition at Transit Books, said she finished reading the novel over a weekend and immediately recognized its potential. Levy cited a line in the book about history, recordkeeping, and art forcing readers to confront what they have lost. She said she appreciated the pathways Perry creates toward possible answers.

The novel contains two narratives. The first follows a modern-day curator who stages scenes for museums and historical sites. This character is recovering from an undisclosed trauma and discovers a king in the archives of the palace where they work. The second narrative follows that king, who is reluctant and unprepared to take power.

Perry described the book as relatively plotless to avoid spoilers. She said the story explores themes of storytelling, history, reliability, and the refusal of absolute power. She noted that the two narratives can be interpreted in multiple ways, including the possibility that the curator is imagining the king’s story or constructing it from archival scraps.

The author developed the concept from two separate short stories. One featured a woman obsessed with replica food who staged scenes in her home. The other involved a young attendant. Perry realized the two characters would conjure each other, merging the stories into a single book. She said she loved the juxtaposition of absolute seriousness with absurdity.

Perry conducted research on replica food and staged historic scenes. She visited various buildings to observe what worked and what failed in scene construction. She also reviewed hundreds of photos she had taken over the years of such scenes. She noted that eggs became a recurring theme in the novel, prompting her to ask her editor to withdraw a final draft so she could incorporate them.

The Booker Prize will be announced on November 9 at a livestreamed event in London. Perry has attended the ceremony in previous years for her literacy work. She said she feels lucky to be nominated alongside authors Marlon James, Elizabeth Strout, and Douglas Stuart. She added that being on the shortlist feels massive, and she is content with that achievement for now.

Perry said she believes books should be readable and enjoyable. She cited writers Gwendoline Riley and Mary Ruefle as influences who present complex ideas in a deceptively straightforward way. She also noted that her interest in gardening helps with patience, comparing the waiting period for bulbs planted in October to the process of writing.