The Kingdom

by Yoel Noorali

In a surreal and hilarious mix of fiction and autobiography, The Kingdom follows a host of misfits and losers struggling to devote themselves to the religion of the 21st century: work. Set predominantly within the admin office of an NHS liver wing, the collection chronicles the strange behaviours of men cornered by bureaucracy that lets indignity run rampant.

Paperback

Published October 1, 2025

Reviews

[Yoel Noorali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great effort from the writer here – clearly a little bitter and self-pitying but wears it well. I've had the pleasure of reading these essays and stories several hundred times now and can confirm they’re worth precisely £12–£15 (plus postage). Get this man an agent! And a psychotherapist!

[Charlotte Broomfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Justice for Charlotte x

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me laugh out loud at times (which is a rarity)

[Lucie McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

P 107 ‘I thought about our modern impulse to tick boxes’

I came to Goodreads to mark this book as read, although I should be working right now, and to encourage everyone to read it. A great book about work, especially for those who recently completed their HMRC self-assessment online.

I read it on the beach in Lanzarote between the Christmas holidays (alongside my partner (reading Tahir Shah) and his mum (reading a Sally Rooney for her Bookclub) ) and going back to ‘work’ on a research degree, where I’m often failing to write about art’work’. The beach was overcast and I kept having to put the book down to put more clothes on. I used to work as an administrator in two large institutions, so I found the first half of this book so compelling I had to send my favourite people WhatsApp messages about it. Around page 69 things became a bit bumpy, and I thought about sending more messages to my favourite people to warn them about this, because I was worried I’d raised their expectations too high if they end up reading the book, what would they think of me if they left it disappointed or perturbed? By the end I was completely won over again, and I see no need to message them anymore.

[Bronwyn Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please can Yeol go work as a Management Consultant. I am horrified beyond repair about learning of the inner workings of the National Health Service. My former-NHS-GP friend now with a cushy job managing a Drs practice in Dubai, can’t wait to be reminded of the halls of despair from which he escaped!

… still to read on to the non-NHS chapters…

beautiful, witty descriptions

Nice book cover too with a convenient jacket for marking your page ! Someone clearly had too much time on their hands during their day job in order to generate such contemporary literary perfection !

[Lloy]

An incisive critique of toxic masculinity under late stage capitalism?

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Observational cynical satire at its best