Outsider - by Jade Du Preez (Paperback)

About the Book

For fans of Ruth Ozeki's "A Tale for the Time Being", "Outsider" is a rich study in art, culture, identity and the complexity of being human.

Book Synopsis

Tokyo, 2017

Weeks from a birthday that will see her older than her mother ever was, Antoinette seeks two answers:

One-how to explain her Master's thesis on light as memory.

And two-was her mother's death an accident or a suicide?

Then a long-lost pen-pal returns to her life, propelling her closer to the truth.

Kyou, the top star of a gender-bending nabe bar, would sooner die than move into management. She needs an out, she needs cash and, most importantly, she needs an identity. As an unregistered mukoseki, she is a legal anomaly.

Officially, Kyou doesn't exist.

Their searches for identity intertwine with the lives of a video-game obsessed businessman and a writer who refuses to speak. Across Japan and down to New Zealand, from neon-lit alleys to tiny islands, their journey towards the truth is as tangled as their pasts.

Fact and fable blur together in a rich tapestry that ultimately explores what it is to be human.

For fans of Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being and Ali Smith's How to be Both, Jade du Preez's Outsider is a rich, engrossing study in art, culture, identity and the complexity of being human.

Review Quotes

"This is a lyrical story about identity and home, connections and communication, and the power and weight of truth. The commentary on statelessness was poignant and deeply relevant, and the writing was poetic and intricate. In short, I thought this book was wonderful and would love to read more by this author." - Heather H.

"Just finished Outsider. (Will I ever recover? Probably not.)

- Author and Editor Sam Nimmo

"I loved Outsider. I flew through it in three days. Jade is an excellent writer. I especially loved the part where the author talked about the world not being made for women. It made me stop and reread it to others."

- Keeli Marvel

"I read Outsider transfixed, reluctant to tear my eyes from the page - or rather the vivid hallucination du Preez's words conjured in my head. From very early on, these characters became so real to me that I wanted to search them online to see how they're doing...These characters will live on in my heart and mind for a long time after I've closed the book, and my life is richer for having known them and their struggles."

- Claire Ahuriri-Dunning