'A brilliant blend of sweeping satisfying family drama with a tense undercurrent of psychological thriller that hooks on and doesn't let go until [Hourican] delivers her last devastating page' Sunday Independent

'The Outsider is everything you could want from high-end commercial fiction - it's sharp, compelling, and full of keenly observed truths about human behaviour. Emily Hourican has always been an insightful, astute writer but this may be her best novel yet.' Louise O'Neill

Two very different families ...
One is loud, eccentric, rich and confident.
The other is less sure of their place in life.

On holidays in Portugal, a near-drowning brings the ten-year-old daughters, Jamie and Sarah, together and a friendship is formed.
As the bond between the girls grows deeper, so too do the ties between their families and an unsettling closeness develops between two of the adults.
Then, as Jamie begins to feel suffocated by the intensity of Sarah's friendship, cracks begin to show.
What will it take to shatter the facade of friendship? The affair? The obsessive crush? And which family will be left whole?

The Outsider is the compelling and unforgettable story of the complexity of friendship, marriage, hidden passions and teenage desire.

A thought-provoking tale of family, flawed friendship and betrayal

About the Author
Emily Hourican is a journalist and author. She has written features for the Sunday Independent for fifteen years, as well as Image magazine, Conde Nast Traveler and Woman and Home. She was also editor of The Dubliner Magazine. Emily's first book, a memoir titled How To (Really) Be A Mother was published in 2013. She is also the author of novels The Privileged, White Villa, The Outsider and The Blamed, as well as three novels about the Guinness sisters: The Glorious Guinness Girls, The Guinness Girls: A Hint of Scandal and The Other Guinness Girl. She lives in Dublin with her family.

Reviews
An exquisite evocation of childhood and adolescence, riven with a dark underbelly in [this book] will resonate with readers ... fresh and full of well-drawn characters, The Outsider is almost impossible to put down - Irish Independent

An atmospheric sizzler - The Gloss magazine

A brilliant blend of sweeping satisfying family drama with a tense undercurrent of psychological thriller that hooks on and doesn't let go until [Hourican] delivers her last devastating page - Sunday Independent

Compelling, almost hypnotic in its storytelling ... with plenty to sink your teeth into, The Outsider by Emily Hourican is a haunting story about friendship, relationships, and the pressure to be something to everyone, and I highly recommend it. - Books of All Kinds



Book Information
ISBN 9781473681125
Author Emily Hourican
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Hachette Books Ireland
Publisher Hachette Books Ireland
Weight(grams) 280g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 28mm