Sunburn

How it reads

Sunburn is contemporary fiction (literary contemporary fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, loss and grief and redemption. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 359 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's a hidden gem — known to relatively few readers.