by Luke Martin
First published 2022
Edgar and Edmund, heirs to the House of Gloucester, watch their world collapse as their king descends into madness. The kingdom fractures around them while the brothers face their own bitter rivalry. Edgar, the legitimate son, finds himself cast out and forced to assume a false identity to survive. Edmund, the bastard brother, schemes to claim what he believes should be his by right. Their father becomes a pawn in Edmund's manipulations, unable to distinguish truth from lies. As civil war erupts and families turn against each other, both brothers must navigate betrayal, exile, and violence. Luke Martin adapts Shakespeare's King Lear to focus entirely on the Gloucester storyline, stripping away the main plot to examine how two sons respond when everything they know dissolves. The brothers' choices will determine not only their own fates but the survival of their house as the realm slides toward destruction.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: House of Gloucester, Kingdom
Period: King Lear
133 pages · Paperback · Independently published
Content warnings: violence