Black Jesus

'There is a boldness to Simone's writing, the fierceness and fearlessness of complete honesty that pushes into places that simply take the breath away.' The TelegraphA young marine returns from Iraq, blinded and scarred by a roadside bomb and harbouring a terrible secret. Called Black Jesus by his fellow soldiers on account of his name being Lionel White and his birthday being Christmas Day, he has returned to his decaying home town to sit in the back of his mother's junkshop, pop Oxycontin and try to forget what he's seen. Into his life one day rides Gloria, a mysterious young dancer fleeing darkness and violence of a different kind. Part love story, part protest at the broken promises lying at the heart of the American Dream, Black Jesus is a passionate, twisted hymn to the marginalised and forgotten.