Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Outcast | Sadie Jones

To be frank, I picked this book for its cover! It had a couple embracing, not in a bodice ripper kind of way but in a very modest and beautifully photographed way! It conveyed a feeling, and so I grabbed it off the shelf.

And it's a great book, a lovely bitter sweet story well told.

It is set in the 1950's England. Lewis is about 7 when his dad, Gilbert, returns from the war. Until then he's had the sole attention of a doting loving mother. But everything changes when Gilbert takes over the family. He seems cold and overbearing... Tragedy follows, Lewis observes but struggles to interpret his changing world. As he grows up he has contact with other families, who all seem to struggle and have secrets which mark the relationships in the novel.
There is a lot of tension and Sadie Jones tells the story from various perspectives. We sympathise with Lewis as he desperately tries to fit in and find his place. Mostly he feels like an outcast.

In this story there is a lot of tension, emotion, relationships and  suspense. It engages us and is beautifully told.

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