After fourteen years in prison, Myrden is released, proven innocent by new DNA evidence. Greeted by friends and enemies, and a wife who’d lost no time moving on while he was away, he is now unwittingly famous as he awaits a hefty financial settlement from the government. Myrden clings to his young granddaughter and to a girlfriend from his past, hoping that the money can free them all from the cycles of revenge and failure that have marked his life. But it’s not easy to leave the old neighborhood behind. Written in prose that brilliantly reflects Myrden’s cautious evaluation of everyone and everything in the outside world, Inside pulls the reader forward with the quiet gravity of Greek tragedy.

"'Canadian Harvey's spare, terse and intense novel is about the outside, as in 'outside of prison.' The story focuses on the bitter, ruined life of Mr. Myrden (his first name is conspicuously omitted) and begins as Myrden is consumed by a phalanx of reporters as he leaves the prison gates on his first morning of freedom after serving 14 years for a murder he didn't commit. (DNA evidence belatedly cleared him.) Harvey (The Town That Forgot How to Breathe) examines the minutiae of how the former inmate deals with being on the outside, where so much has changed: his wife has left him, his children have grown (Myrden is now a grandfather), his friends have changed in unexpected ways, and he reconnects with a long-lost love. His attorneys arrange a substantial settlement that leaves Myrden and his wife more than $1 million (she's suddenly less estranged when money's involved), but the windfall is anything but a blessing, as Myrden soon discovers. Harvey's prose is startlingly economical and plain ('One fast action. Release. Noise and flash') and gives the reader immediate access to Myrden's inner conflicted reticence. In the end, it's tough to tell which is crueler: prison or the outside.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A taut, masterful novel of friends and enemies, family and fate, and the relative nature of freedom.

When Myrden returns to his tough St. John's neighbourhood after fourteen years in prison, he is swarmed by old friends and enemies, and a wife who hasn't exactly been waiting for him. A cruel twist of fate has made Myrden famous: any wrongfully accused man released after such a lengthy incarceration is soon to be rich.

He clings to his young granddaughter and an old love, hoping his coming settlement can free them from the cycles of revenge and failure that have marked his life. But old scores are not so easily left unsettled.

Written in abrupt prose that brilliantly reflects Myrden's cautious evaluation of everyone and everything in the overwhelming outside world, Inside pulls the reader forward with the quiet, creeping gravity of Greek tragedy. It is a story about the best kind of friend, the life a man can't believe he deserves and the value of trying, no matter how doomed he seems to fail, to bring hope into the lives of those still worth loving.

KENNETH J. HARVEY is the author of sixteen books, published in Canada and internationally. Inside was long-listed for the 2006 Giller Prize and has been selected as a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail (Toronto) and the National Post (Toronto), among others. He lives in Newfoundland.