WINNER OF THE WORLD BOOK DAY - BOOKS TO TALK ABOUT PRIZE 2008 WINNER OF THE JOHN LLEWELLYN RHYS PRIZE 2005 WINNER OF THE WAVERTON GOOD READ PRIZE 2005 ?A is for Apple. A bad apple.? Jack has spent most of his life in juvenile institutions, to be released with a new name, new job, new life. At 24, he is utterly innocent of the world, yet guilty of a monstrous childhood crime. To his new friends, he is a good guy with occasional flashes of unexpected violence. To his new girlfriend, he is strangely inexperienced and unreachable. To his case worker, he?s a victim of the system and of media-driven hysteria. And to himself, Jack is on permanent trial: can he really start from scratch, forget the past, become someone else? Is a new name enough? Can Jack ever truly connect with his new friends while hiding a monstrous secret? This searing and heartfelt novel is a devastating indictment of society?s inability to reconcile childhood innocence with reality.

"Creepy and involving... From the beginning, Trigell weaves a sense of drama and a disturbing feeling of inevitability" - Independent

"Trigell brilliantly depicts the pressures of living with a terrible secret... written with a naive clarity which evokes the unfamiliar wonders of the outside world" - Guardian

"A challenging novel of atrocity and redemption... [A] fast-paced, thought provoking read, perhaps all the more significant for the questions it can't answer" - Big Issue