The Outcast by Sadie Jones

The Outcast by Sadie Jones

In 1957 Lewis Aldridge, newly released from prison, returns home to Waterford, a suburban town outside London. He is nineteen years old. A decade earlier his father's homecoming at war's end was greeted with far less apprehension by the staid, tightly knit community--thanks to Gilbert Aldridge's easy acceptance of suburban ritual and routine. Nobody is surprised that Gilbert's wife counters convention, but the entire community is shocked when, after one of their jaunts, Lewis comes back without her.

No one in Waterford wants Lewis back--except Kit, a young woman who sympathizes with his grief and burgeoning rage. But in her attempts to set them both free, Kit fails to foresee the painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open. The consequences for Lewis, his family, and the tightly knit community are devastating.

Sadie Jones is the daughter of a Jamaican writer and a London-born actress. She was born in London, England. Jones traveled for years, working as a waiter and teaching English as a second language before returning to London to pursue a career in filmmaking. She subsequently went on to work as a screenwriter, which she did for 15 years, writing for both BBC television and feature films. Her first novel, The Outcast, was published in 2008. She was a nominee for the Orange Prize and won the Costa First Novel Award for it.

Jones is married to Tim Boyd, an architect, and they have two children together. Jones writes of her desire to create The Outcast, It is commonly believed that everyone has a novel in them. I assumed I was an exception to this rule until I wrote The Outcast, which I felt obliged to write. I don't know; in many ways, it's a mystery to me. Perhaps I needed a book with enough life to it that screamed to be published, or perhaps I was simply learning the hard way how to make stories.