Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wide Open | 1998 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
| 2 | Behindlings | 2002 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
| 3 | Darkmans | 2007 | Nicola Barker | Buy |
Nicola Barker’s Thames Gateway trilogy is set in the flat, unglamorous landscape of southeast England around the Thames estuary. Wide Open (1998), which won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award, Behindlings (2002), and Darkmans (2007) are connected by their setting and their interest in the odd, overlooked people who live there.
Darkmans is the standout of the three, a sprawling novel set in Ashford that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The trilogy as a whole established Barker’s territory as a writer who finds comedy and strangeness in the kinds of places most literary novelists ignore. The Thames Gateway itself becomes almost a character across the three books.