Suttree

This compelling novel has as its protagonist Cornelius Suttree, living alone and in exile in a disintegrating houseboat on the wrong side of the Tennessee River close by Knoxville.

He stays at the edge of an outcast community inhabited by eccentrics, criminals and the poverty-stricken.

Rising above the physical and human squalor around him, his detachment and wry humour enable him to survive dereliction and destitution with dignity.