In Search of Adam

A taut and beautifully written debut novel by an exciting and accomplished new author.

Motherless, rootless and unprotected, Jude Williams' childhood is fractured by the horror and experience of sexual abuse, forcing her to exist somewhere and nowhere in-between childhood and adulthood. Caught within the limitations of her own language and trapped within a family secret, Jude becomes the consequence of her mother's tragedy. As she moves through the 1980s, Jude's life is buffeted by choice and destiny and she collects experiences that layer her personal tragedy and plunge her into the darkest of worlds.

Reviews

‘Will Self and Caroline Smailes are arch-experimentalists’ OBSERVER

‘A stark and shocking tale told unflinchingly yet with outstanding sensitivity’
Dave Hill, author of The Adoption

‘Original, authentic and technically brilliant, Caroline Smailes' In Search of Adam is a debut of remarkable quality and devastating power’
Nicholas Royle, author of Antwerp

About the author

Caroline Smailes was born in Newcastle in 1973. In 2006 a chance remark on a daytime chat show caused Caroline to reconsider her life. She enrolled on an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and began to write In Search of Adam.

Caroline is currently an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and lives in the North West with her husband and three children.