Inside — Kenneth J. Harvey

A taut, masterful novel of friends and enemies, family and fate, and the relative nature of freedom.

When Myrden returns to his tough St. John's neighbourhood after fourteen years in prison, he is swarmed by old friends and enemies, and a wife who hasn't exactly been waiting for him. A cruel twist of fate has made Myrden famous: any wrongfully accused man released after such a lengthy incarceration is soon to be rich.

He clings to his young granddaughter and an old love, hoping his coming settlement can free them from the cycles of revenge and failure that have marked his life. But old scores are not so easily left unsettled.

Written in abrupt prose that brilliantly reflects Myrden's cautious evaluation of everyone and everything in the overwhelming outside world, Inside pulls the reader forward with the quiet, creeping gravity of Greek tragedy. It is a story about the best kind of friend, the life a man can't believe he deserves and the value of trying, no matter how doomed he seems to fail, to bring hope into the lives of those still worth loving.


From the Hardcover edition.