Five books narrated by a character on the outside looking in

Paddy Crewe was born in Stockton-on-Tees in 1991. He studied at Goldsmiths, University of London.

My Name Is Yip is his first novel.

At Lit Hub Crewe tagged "five books narrated by a character who is always on the outside looking in," including:

Rawi Hage, De Niro’s Game

Sometimes a narrative voice doesn’t need any linguistic tricks or narrative quirks to bring it to life, but relies on the environment the story unspools in. In war-torn Lebanon, “Ten thousand bombs had landed, and I was waiting for George,” says Bassam, Hage’s narrator.
Bassam is in a constant dialogue with his city and the threat it’s under. Even when it’s not being addressed directly, the proximity of violence is ever-present, and it can’t help but color the reader’s understanding of Bassam. He is, at times, made to seem no more than a speck, a single victim among a multitude of other lives; and then there are times when he becomes bigger than the war itself: his voice, his thoughts, his relationship to his friend George supplanting the greater danger, and creating a world in which he’s never one, singular entity, but many versions all in contest to be seen and heard.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue