Outside

LoveReading Says

Tender and ingeniously funny (the comic timing is exquisite), Outside confirms Charlotte Levin’s extraordinary gift for observation and nuances of character that cut to the core of contemporary life and the human condition. 

Following the sudden tragic death of her French mother, a famous former model, up-and-coming actress Beatrice has shut herself off from the world. Shackled by grief and anxiety, she’s confined her existence to her mother’s house. Communication is all but limited to her talking parakeet (“Wanker” is the bird’s most frequent utterance), the postman, the longstanding elderly Polish tenant of her mother’s downstairs flat, and her therapist.

Then, almost by accident, Beatrice hires an Irish gardener to work on her mother’s overgrown garden. When Beatrice reveals she can’t leave the house, warm, gentle, funny Finn is understanding. “When the apple’s ripe, it’ll fall”, he says, which becomes a potent symbol of Beatrice’s faltering journey to finding freedom from grief and anxiety.

In time, while Beatrice and Finn’s bond blooms into a connection that feels “as natural as the grass and flowers and earth”, this is no simplistic happy-ever-after love story. Rather, Outside is achingly true-to-life: devastating, messy, tender and hysterically funny as it conjures intimate emotional truths while glinting with the promise of release and renewal. As such, Outside is sure to be relished by fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Sorrow and Bliss, The Rosie Project, and Fredrik Backman’s feel-good fiction.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Outside

A funny, warm yet tragic exploration of a fragile mind from the bestselling author of If I Can’t Have You. Perfect for fans of Joanna Cannon and Gail Honeyman

Find This Book In