Help me remember this book…

[SparkleShineRainbow]

Protagonist has a disfigured smile which other characters find sinister, but he is in fact sweet and vulnerable.
The plot of the book turns on a mystery where someone appears to have been murdered being pushed out of a window.
Most of the book is a flashback of the protagonist’s time at a grim boarding school in Scotland (based on Gourdonstoun perhaps ?) where he is bullied relentlessly and attacked on a cross country run, leaving him with lifelong injuries to his hand.
Later, after the person has fallen from the window to their death, the protagonist is in an institution in the 70’s or ‘80’s for the criminally insane. I think he was blamed for the death. He is administered drugs and finds it hard to communicate when he has an opportunity to speak to a trust worthy character who comes to find out the truth about the death by defenestration.
What was the book??!!
thank you 😃

Can anyone save me from insomnia by reminding me of the name of the book 👆 ?!

The wasp factory by Iain banks?

Good guess but not it. Thank you for trying!

The protagonist is an adult in the book, except for flashbacks of his school days.

he’s probably in early 20’s when the person gets pushed out of the window.

Google not helping!

Not sure it all matches but bits of your description sound like The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer?

good luck - hope you find it

Thank you!
looked it up - not it 😖

Apparently…

Based on your detailed description, the book you’re referring to is likely “Spider” by Patrick McGrath, published in 1990. The novel centers on Dennis Clegg, nicknamed Spider, who has a disfigured smile that others find unsettling, though he is inherently gentle and vulnerable. The narrative delves into Spider’s traumatic experiences at a grim boarding school in Scotland, where he endures relentless bullying and a brutal attack during a cross-country run, resulting in permanent hand injuries. The plot pivots around the mysterious death of a person who falls from a window, an incident for which Spider is blamed. Subsequently, in the 1970s or 1980s, Spider is confined to an institution for the criminally insane, where he is administered drugs that impair his ability to communicate. A trustworthy character seeks to uncover the truth about the defenestration, offering Spider a chance to share his side of the story.

sounds a lot like Dominion by CJ Sansom

Yes!! That’s the one thank you! 💐
love your username
maybe now I can get some
sleep…

Hm. Is this from a gen AI, complete with wild hallucination?!
or are you a bot??!

Definitely Gen AI - I’ve worked in this area and it is terrible for stuff like this - it often makes completely wrong connections between authors, books and plots, attributes things wrongly, mashes up details or just invents books and authors completely. Seems to do the same with music. I wish people would flag it when they use it.
Spider - which i read years ago - has some similar themes to the other book, involving mental illness and a troubled character reminiscing about his childhood. This will be why AI has picked it up, but it’s set in the east end of London and obviously doesn’t share the other details.

I was trying to be helpful…but never mind. Thought I would see what it comes up with. When I double checked it sounded plausible. Complete with wild hallucination? Where do you get that from? You’re decidedly rude for early morning. I won’t bother again.

It sounds really good! I will put it on my 'to read' list.

@MaggieBsBoat

I was trying to be helpful…but never mind. Thought I would see what it comes up with. When I double checked it sounded plausible. Complete with wild hallucination? Where do you get that from? You’re decidedly rude for early morning. I won’t bother again.

Where did you double check?

The Wikipedia entry sounds very different

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_(novel)

Hallucination is the technical term for when Gen AI makes stuff up, so I don't think rudeness was really intended. One of the things you have to look out for if you're a human working to improve written responses is hallucinations - the models have to be trained out of it, but it's tricky to achieve 100% of the time, or it is at the moment anyway.

Yes absolutely. I work with AI daily, it’s just that hallucination wasn’t mentioned in my cut and paste from it. I thought I’d made it clear from my original post.
I’ve switched from ChatGPT to Claude and back again in the last few months. It’s all very much in flux.