The Outcast, by Sadie Jones

Gripping, but in equal measure disturbing and thought provoking - a really good read!

A friend lent me this book, it's not the type of thing I would choose,however I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it.

The Outcast opens with Lewis Aldridge returning to his home town after a completing a prison term. From here Sadie Jones' mesmerising first novel retraces the steps which have led him here, from his idyllic early childhood during WW2, through an increasingly troubled and misunderstood adolescence, shaped by the death of his mother.

Written from the heart, this stunning debut gripped me from the first page to the last - although the ending is almost too satisfactory, after such a bittersweet, nuanced novel.

It's no surprise to learn that Sadie Jones' background is in screenwriting - her strength is in the dialogue, spare but effective charactisation, and practiced pacing. The Outcast will draw you into its fully realised world, and keep you there until the final page.

A mesmerizing debut about loss and the possibility of redemption. A character-driven novel that grabs you by the collar and drags you in to a claustrophobic world of post-war, upper middle-class cordiality, masking deep sadness and broken lives. This is an emotional, psychological novel, which I devoured in two evenings. You would never believe it is a first novel