Excerpt from The Outcast by Sadie Jones, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

'Don't! I wasn't falling!'

'I know you weren't, I just wanted to give you a hug.'

'Mummy!'

'Sorry, darling, you balance.' She let go, and Lewis went back to balancing.

They took a taxi from Victoria to Charing Cross and they looked out at the buildings, and the big holes where buildings had been. There was much more sky than there had been and the gaps looked more real than the buildings, which were like afterthoughts. There were lots of people on the pavements and the road was crowded with cars and buses. The weather made it look as if the broken buildings and people's coats and hats and the grey sky were all joined together in greyness except for the blowing autumn leaves, which were quite bright.

'Here we are,' said Elizabeth, and the taxi pulled over. Lewis scraped his calf climbing out of the taxi and didn't feel it because he was looking up at the hotel and seeing all the men going in and out and thinking that one of them might be his father.

'I'm meeting my husband in the bar.'

'Yes, madam. Follow me.'

Lewis held Elizabeth's hand and they followed the man. The hotel was vast and dim and shabby. There were men in uniform everywhere and people greeting each other and the air was full of smoke. Gilbert was sitting in a corner by a tall, dirty window. He was in his uniform, and greatcoat, and he was smoking a cigarette and scanning the crowds outside on the pavement. Elizabeth saw him before he saw her and she stopped.

'Do you see your party, madam?'

'Yes, thank you.'

Lewis pulled her hand,'Where? Where?'

Excerpted from The Outcast by Sadie Jones, © 2008 by Sadie Jones. Excerpted by permission of Harper Collins Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.