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A novel in preparation

The Fourth King

A story of lost certainty and an open mystery

In preparationComing soon

A novel about a king who abandons his crown because he can no longer pretend to know the will of God.

The Fourth King novel cover
Novel · Miroslav Mühlböck

01 — ABOUT THE BOOK

A different form.
The same honesty.

Naram leaves the palace carrying the stones removed from his own crown and a question from which power could not protect him. Who decides what is good when a person stops hiding behind a certainty he cannot defend?

His road leads through faith, violence, compassion and human responsibility. While Azarel lifts the empty crown, Naram learns to bear his own actions without a guarantee that heaven will speak on his behalf.

The Fourth King is neither a polemic against faith nor an attempt to replace one doctrine with another. It questions an inherited religious conception while leaving a hidden door open to mystery, wonder and hope.

01

Authority and conscience

What remains of moral choice when it can no longer be transferred to a crown, a law or God?

02

Silence and faith

The silence of heaven need not prove emptiness. It does, however, test every borrowed certainty.

03

Mystery without doctrine

The novel refuses to close the unknown inside a finished answer — without dismissing it as meaningless.

02 — CURRENT WORKING CONTENTS

The book’s
current map.

This map records the present 43-chapter manuscript. Titles and the arrangement of later chapters may change during editorial work.

Open the working contents
01

Book I · 1–10

  1. 1. The Widow’s Field
  2. 2. The Empty Setting
  3. 3. I Am
  4. 4. The Right Direction
  5. 5. In His Own Words
  6. 6. Wooden Eyes
  7. 7. Four Words
  8. 8. Footsteps Beyond the Door
  9. 9. The Voice That Does Not Fall Silent
  10. 10. The Star Above the Crown
02

Book II · 11–20

  1. 11. At a Stranger’s Bedside
  2. 12. Among the Wounded
  3. 13. The Seventh Day
  4. 14. The Chisel
  5. 15. Four Roads
  6. 16. The Gate
  7. 17. Place and Time
  8. 18. The Door
  9. 19. Morning in the House of Bread
  10. 20. The Cut of a Diamond
03

Book III · 21–30

  1. 21. Three Roads
  2. 22. The Old Light
  3. 23. They Pointed at Him
  4. 24. Nameless
  5. 25. Bread
  6. 26. Blood
  7. 27. Father
  8. 28. The Lie
  9. 29. The Prisoner
  10. 30. Breath
04

Book IV · 31–43

  1. 31. The Last Command
  2. 32. Traces of Thirst
  3. 33. Three Questions
  4. 34. The Return
  5. 35. The Fig Tree
  6. 36. Rumours
  7. 37. The Calling
  8. 38. Jerusalem
  9. 39. You Do Not Have To
  10. 40. Golgotha
  11. 41. The Sabbath
  12. 42. The Open Tomb
  13. 43. The Fourth King

From the manuscript

Chapter One — The Widow’s Field

The latest approved editorial version of the opening chapter. Approximately 8 minutes to read.

Open the sample page
The other bookThe New Metaphysics↗