‘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 fa ade 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.