The Gospel According to Cane

"A mother's love is unbreakable, as Frank O'Connor Award-nominee Newland demonstrates in his latest novel... The storytelling is as captivating as the story itself. Newland, a Jamaican-born British writer, seamlessly integrates the joy, fear, uncertainty, and sadness... Newland's prose is beautiful. His novel--part homecoming narrative in the vein of Toni Morrison's Beloved and part haunting tale of loss similar to Ernest Gaines's In My Father's House--will appeal to all lovers of literary fiction."
--Library Journal

"The characters are finely drawn with realistic ambiguity and genuinely exhibit the durability of grief and pain."
--Publishers Weekly

"Newland delivers an intense portrait of mental conflict against a gritty inner-city background. The book we are reading is Beverley Cottrell's journal...This 'journal of my pain,' becomes a spiral of cathartic violence during which Newland deftly keeps the reader guessing."
--Kirkus Reviews

"The abduction of a child would devastate any family. But what if that child returned, many years later, a young man and a stranger? Could that be even worse? The Gospel According to Cane is a gripping novel that's rich with both grief and great love. Courttia Newland is a fierce talent."--Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine

"The Gospel According to Cane is a gripping tale of loss, despaire, and hope of redemption. Courttia Newland continues to consolidate his reputation as a writer of depth and range."--Linton Kwesi Johnson, author of Mi Revalueshanary Fren

"A thrilling read, full of psychological tension and drama, the emotive account of one woman's response to tragedy. Newland depicts his young characters humanely, compassionately. A stylish, confident novel."
--Yvvette Edwards, author of A Cupboard Full of Coats

"One of Britain's most important young black novelists...a truly gifted storyteller."--Time Out London

"One of the most imaginative, free-thinking writers working today. I love his work."
--Sarah Hall, author of The Electric Michelangelo

Beverley Cottrell had a dream life: a prestigious job, a beautiful husband and baby boy. This is stolen from her one winter afternoon when her son Malakay is kidnapped from a parked car. Despite a media campaign, a full police investigation, and the offer of a reward, Malakay is never found. Beverley’s marriage soon dissolves and her husband immigrates from England to the U.S. with a new wife.

Beverley gives up her job, sells the house, and moves from the leafy suburbs to the inner city to reside in a west London housing project. She cocoons herself in grief, growing more isolated with each passing year. After two decades she gives up any hope of finding her son. She teaches children who have been expelled from school in the local community center, bright kids thrown on society’s scrap heap.

Beverley starts to believe she has finally pieced her life together?until a young man starts appearing wherever she goes. Beverley is convinced that he’s stalking her. One dark evening the stalker gets past her security door and calls through her letterbox. He tells her not to be scared. He says that he is Malakay, her son.

The Gospel According to Cane is a novel about inner-city youth in contemporary London. It’s a meditation on pain and loss, the burden of heritage, and how the past can blur the present. It’s about trust and the perceived lack of trust, disillusion, and its consequences. A world where everyone is the victim, and no one is to blame.