Indie Next
2014 · Starred Review
About This Book
"Simply an epiphany."—Kirkus, starred review
Simon Austen has the names people have called him tattooed all over his body. Waste of Space. Bastard. A Threat to Women. Murderer. Facing a lifetime behind bars and subjected to new therapies for sexual reprogramming, Simon finds himself plunged into a terrifying process of self-reconstruction. But how much, in the end, can a man really change? Darkly compelling and deeply moving, Alphabet is a psychological exploration of one man's uncertain and often-harrowing journey towards rehabilitation.
"Intense, revealing, challenging and above all riveting … I kept saying to myself, how could she know this?"—Erwin James, convicted murderer, author of A Life Inside: A Prisoner's Notebook
"Sometimes novelists go too far—and sometimes they manage to demonstrate that too far is the place they needed to go."—Time Out UK
Praise for Kathy Page
"Her unforgettable prose is moody, shape-shifting, provocative and always as compelling as a strong light at the end of a road you hesitate to walk down...but will."— Amy Bloom, author of Where the God of Love Hangs Out
"Marvellously well-crafted … I can't remember the last time I was so compelled, impressed and unsettled by the emotional world of a novel."— Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet
Simon Austen has the names people have called him tattooed all over his body. Waste of Space. Bastard. A Threat to Women. Murderer. Facing a lifetime behind bars and subjected to new therapies for sexual reprogramming, Simon finds himself plunged into a terrifying process of self-reconstruction. But how much, in the end, can a man really change? Darkly compelling and deeply moving, Alphabet is a psychological exploration of one man's uncertain and often-harrowing journey towards rehabilitation.
"Intense, revealing, challenging and above all riveting … I kept saying to myself, how could she know this?"—Erwin James, convicted murderer, author of A Life Inside: A Prisoner's Notebook
"Sometimes novelists go too far—and sometimes they manage to demonstrate that too far is the place they needed to go."—Time Out UK
Praise for Kathy Page
"Her unforgettable prose is moody, shape-shifting, provocative and always as compelling as a strong light at the end of a road you hesitate to walk down...but will."— Amy Bloom, author of Where the God of Love Hangs Out
"Marvellously well-crafted … I can't remember the last time I was so compelled, impressed and unsettled by the emotional world of a novel."— Sarah Waters, author of Tipping the Velvet
