Author(s): A.M. Homes

Novel

AM Homes' most infamous novel about the manifestations of forbidden desire and its terrible consequences. The End of Alice treads the wafer-thin line between the evil and the everyday, following the correspondence of two paedophiles. One, the narrator, is a child-killer, serving his twenty-third year in prison. The other, his seemingly sweet admirer, is a nineteen-year-old woman, intent on seducing a young neighbourhood boy. Teetering on the knife's edge between the American Dream and the American Nightmare, The End of Alice unpicks the darkness of inconceivable desire, and the destruction and horror left in its wake.

The End of Alice treads the thin line between the evil and the everyday and caused a major controversy when it was first released in the US. The story centres on the correspondence of two paedophiles: one, the narrator, is a middle-aged child-killer serving his twenty-third year in prison; the other, his slang-speaking, sweet-seeming admirer, is a nineteen-year-old girl intent on seducing a young neighbourhood boy. Slowly, through these letters, the narrator’s dangerous character emerges.