| | The Outcast | |
Description
1957, and Lewis Aldridge is travelling back to his home in the South of
England. He is straight out of jail and nineteen years old. His return will
trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a whole community. A decade
earlier, his father's homecoming casts a different shape. The war is over and
Gilbert has recently been demobbed. He reverts easily to suburban life -
cocktails at six thirty, church on Sundays - but his wife and young son resist
the stuffy routine. Lewis and his mother escape to the woods for picnics, just
as they did in wartime days. Nobody is surprised that Gilbert's wife counters
convention, but they are all shocked when, after one of their jaunts, Lewis
comes back without her.
Not far away, Kit Carmichael keeps watch. She has always understood more than
most, not least from what she has been dealt by her own father's hand. Lewis'
grief and burgeoning rage are all too plain, and Kit makes a private vow to
help. But in her attempts to set them both free, she fails to predict the
painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open. As
menacing as it is beautiful, "The Outcast" is a devastating portrait of
small-town hypocrisy from an astonishing new voice.
Details
Country of Origin : UNITED KINGDOM
Number Of Pages : 368
Year of Publication : 2008
Genre: FICTION GENERAL
Binding: Paperback
