Praise for The Outcast:

‘An assured voice, a riveting story, and an odd, wrenchingly sympathetic protagonist. I would never have imagined this was a first novel.’
Lionel Shriver

‘In the tradition of ATONEMENT and REMAINS OF THE DAY but in her own singularly arresting voice, Sadie Jones conjures up the straight-laced, church-going, secretly abusive middle class of 1950s England. THE OUTCAST is a passionate and deeply suspenseful novel about what happens to those who break the rules, and what happens to those who keep them. I loved reading this wonderful debut.’
Margot Livesey

‘I much admired The Outcast. Sadie Jones tells her story using minute details to convey the apparent ordinariness of her characters' lives. But from the choreography of these walking, smiling, drinking people, from their emotional repression and their children's deprivation, she conjures an atmosphere of menace and suspense that erupts into violence and tragedy. It is an impressive debut for this talented new novelist.
Michael Holroyd

‘Sadie Jones' is an important new voice. She writes in beautiful prose of terrible events, demonstrating how love denied brings brutal consequences. She conjures the repressive social climate of the 1950s with awful accuracy, and explores the hearts and minds of young people with forensic skill. A great stylist and fine storyteller.’
Joan Bakewell

‘One of Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime reads for February, Jones’s story is imbued with brooding atmosphere and drama. Understated and elegantly narrated with attention to period detail, this is a gripping love story with a twist. If you liked Atonement by Ian McEwan, you’ll love this’.
Harper’s Bazaar (Feb issue), Francesca Martin, ‘The best novels from debut authors out this season’.

‘an explosive drama, fuelled by the repression of 1950s Britain … Devastatingly good’
Marie Claire, rev Eithne Farry

‘Sadie Jones proves she’s no novice when it comes to poignant prose with this, her debut novel… The sense of mounting suspense coupled with the beautifully drawn characterisation makes this a novel that’s guaranteed to get right under you skin’.
Glamour ‘Must read’, rev Shauna Bartlett

‘This is a sensational novel. From page one, you are grabbed by the hand and pulled along through the light and shade of other people’s lives’.
Good Housekeeping ‘Book of the Month’

‘If you haven’t already heard of Sadie Jones, you soon will. Although The Outcast is her first book, she’s sure to gain an army of fans once they read this beautifully written book’.
Bella, ‘Must-read book’

‘a wonderfully assured first novel’
Guardian, Justine Jordan, ‘The year ahead’.

‘The prose is elegant and spare, but the story it reveals is raw and explosive… Devastatingly good’.
Daily Mail, Eithne Farry, debut fiction round-up ‘Novel talent: the ones to watch’.

‘Jones’s elegantly written debut novel brings to life both her alienated and damaged protagonist and the small minded community that condemns him’
Sunday Times, rev Nick Rennison

‘This is Sadie Jones's first novel and she writes with shimmering intensity about Lewis's struggle for redemption. She is particularly strong on atmosphere - the claustrophobic boredom of a country church service; the sticky, buzzing heat of a midsummer drought; the shabby sultriness of a Soho jazz bar; the filth and excitement of London's reconstruction’.
Sunday Telegraph, rev Heather Thompson

‘The Outcast reads like a thriller, the tension and menace built expertly… This flowing accumulation of detail runs throughout the book, hurtling the reader towards its dramatic denouement… this is a powerful, promising first novel’.
FT Magazine, rev Melissa McClements

‘A dark but beautifully written, heart-wringing suspense tale with Oedipal overtones… The claustrophobic, menacing atmosphere of Sadie Jones's page-turning debut never lets up, and that's admirable enough, but it's more than narrative tension that makes the novel special. Her writing is deeply affecting’.
Independent in Sunday, rev Rachel Hore

‘controlled, insightful first novel… Comparisons with Ian McEwan are inevitable, but Jones’s assured, compassionate writing is satisfyingly original’.
Guardian rev by Catherine Taylor

Jones depicts the stifling Fifties with a terrifying clarity and menace… This is an impressive new voice’.
Observer, rev Francesca Segal

‘This hotly-tipped debut certainly delivers. The prose is clean and clear; so disciplined and spare’.
Independent, rev Hermione Eyre

‘Beautifully written’
Times rev Kate Saunders

‘it’s a credit to debut novelist Sadie Jones that Lewis isn’t just another adolescent cliché. Her take on an introverted and self-destructive teen is fresh and believable… Jones’s portrayal of domestic life works brilliantly and The Outcast benefits from this small-scale focus. An assured and engaging debut’. ****
Metro, rev Zena Alkayat

‘Sadie Jones’s first fictional outing demonstrates a flair for storytelling that has obviously been nourished by her screenwriting experience: in particular, she manages a portrayal of 1950s middle-class village life and Soho nightlife that is entirely convincing’. (They have chosen The Outcast as one of their ’We Love…’ titles, one of ‘Three of the best in this issue’, and it listed on the front page on the reviews section).
Waterstone’s Books Quarterly

‘The writing in Sadie Jones’s first novel is impressive from the start, both succinct and fluent.’
TLS rev Aisling Foster

‘The Outcast is a fantastic first novel by new voice Sadie Jones… As menacing as it is beautiful, The Outcast is a definite must read this Spring’
Aesthetica Magazine

‘The cycle of booze, bullying, violence, prison, mental anguish and self-harm which follows is unrelentingly grim, but controlled confidently by Jones, who never lets on whether tragedy or transgression will be the outcome until the last… an impressively assured arrival’.
The List

‘This terrific debut novel is completely assured in tone, often heart-wrenching reading and unsparing in exposing the hypocrisies of that era’.
Rodney Troubridge, Fiction Marketing Planner at Waterstone’s, The Bookseller

‘The Outcast grips from page one… Jones has captured the stultifying morals and mores of Fifties English middle-class life with satisfying accuracy’.
Publishing News

‘Set in post WWII suburban London, this superb debut novel charts the downward spiral and tortured redemption of a young man shattered by loss. The war is over, and Lewis Aldridge is getting used to having his father, Gilbert, back in the house. Things hum along splendidly until Lewis’s mother drowns, casting the 10-year-old into deep isolation…Jones’s prose is fluid, and Lewis’s suffering comes across as achingly real’.
Starred Review in Publishers Weekly

‘A confident, suspenseful and affecting first novel, delivered in cool, precise, distinctive prose’.
Starred review in Kirkus