Description

‘A…humane and very beautiful book’
Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

A young boy has fled his home. Crouched in his hiding place he hears the shouts of the men hunting him. When the search party has passed, what lies before him is an infinite, arid plain, one he must cross in order to escape those from whom he’s fleeing. One night he crosses paths with an old goatherd and from that moment nothing will ever be the same for either of them.

Out in the Open tells the story of a boy in a drought-stricken country ruled by violence. A closed world where names and dates don’t matter, where morals have drained away with the water. In this landscape the boy, not yet a lost cause, has the chance to learn the painful basics of judgement, or to live out forever the violence with which he grew up.

Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature 2016

Publisher Review

"This novel's deep theme is a peculiar kind of heroism - that of claiming, in a world stripped to necessity, a human remainder of grace: the choice to bear witness to ideals that are more precious than survival and that exist only in our affirmation of them. Out in the Open is a harrowing, humane, and very beautiful book" -- Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You "The writing is austere with flourishes of great beauty from an exceptional translator" -- Rosie Goldsmith * Independent * "Its rural lexicon enriches a tale told with savage precision, and filled with memorable passages" -- Julius Purcell * The Times Literary Supplement * "Undeniably impressive and compelling because everything is everywhere so thoroughly and keenly imagined and realised" -- Allan Massie * Scotsman * "[A] searing, beautifully observed debut" -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express *