The Outcast: A NovelA mesmerizing portrait of 1950s hypocrisy and unexpected love, from a powerful new voice It is 1957, and Lewis Aldridge, straight out of prison, is journeying back to his home in Waterford, a suburban town outside London. He is nineteen years old, and his return will have dramatic consequences not just for his family, but for the whole community. A decade earlier, his father's homecoming has a very different effect. The war is over and Gilbert has been demobilized. 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 is dealt by her own father's hand. Lewis's 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 foresee the painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open. In this brilliant debut, Sadie Jones tells the story of a boy who refuses to accept the polite lies of a tightly knit community that rejects love in favor of appearances. Written with nail-biting suspense and cinematic pacing, The Outcast is an emotionally powerful evocation of postwar provincial English society and a remarkably uplifting testament to the redemptive powers of love and understanding. |
From inside the book
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... Dicky Carmichael helped enormously . It was very important to everybody that it be just the same . ' Lewis looked at the church and there was silence as he looked . ' Well ? ' said Gilbert , ' Do you have anything to say ? ' Lewis said ...
... Dicky Carmichael's blazer and didn't like him . He didn't see why Mr Carmichael got to stay home while his father was away in the war , and he didn't like that he got to be in charge of everyone , or that he was going to be father's ...
... Lizzie , do you really want to know what I'm thinking ? I'm thinking – just that- ― ' Oh don't , you don't need to tell me if it makes you cry . Don't . . . ' Chapter Two Christmas 1947 Dicky Carmichael would have liked a 29.
A Novel Sadie Jones. Chapter. Two. Christmas. 1947. Dicky Carmichael would have liked a double-height hall, as some houses have, and to have had space for a really tall Christmas tree. He made do with the hall he had, and the tree did look ...
... Dicky would pass by , carrying something or instructing somebody about something . She was very uncomfortable in her smocked dress , the elastic of it itched , and she hated her hair , which was tightly plaited and dug into her scalp ...
Contents
| 30 | |
Section 2 | 41 |
Section 3 | 60 |
Section 4 | 69 |
Section 5 | 77 |
Section 6 | 84 |
Section 7 | 95 |
Section 8 | 138 |
Section 14 | 241 |
Section 15 | 247 |
Section 16 | 259 |
Section 17 | 271 |
Section 18 | 280 |
Section 19 | 289 |
Section 20 | 299 |
Section 21 | 312 |
Section 9 | 145 |
Section 10 | 153 |
Section 11 | 196 |
Section 12 | 205 |
Section 13 | 225 |
Section 22 | 319 |
Section 23 | 327 |
Section 24 | 347 |