by John Boyne
Part of The Elements
First published 2024
Evan Keogh grew up on an island and left it behind, trading one life for another that never quite fit. He became a professional footballer, but what he wanted was to be an artist. He is gay in a sport that has no room for it. Now he sits in a courtroom watching two well-known players face charges of sexual assault, and he knows more about that night than anyone realizes. The trial pulls Evan backward through the choices that brought him here. A chain of text messages has already condemned the defendants in the press. The jury will decide their guilt. But Evan carries a different kind of reckoning. What he knows could destroy more than his career. It could cost him everything he has built, layer by layer, since he left home. Boyne puts Evan at the center of a story about the distance between the man you become and the man you meant to be. The verdict is coming. Before it arrives, Evan has to decide what he owes to the truth.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, mystery-thriller
Vibes: intimate, introspective, morally-complex, tense, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, courtroom-drama, moral-dilemma, unreliable-narrator
Setting: island, courtroom
168 pages · Kindle Edition · Transworld Digital
Content warnings: homophobia, sexual-assault