This is an excellent novel. The storyline is good and the characters are well developed. You need to suspend your disbelief at times

A fantastic book, truly beautifully written, moving and unforgettable. I can't begin to identify a genre into which it fits with its innovative plot and complex character arcs but it is powerful and compelling from first word to last.
Philip Hart's journey gave me surges of emotion ... Heartbreak ... Hope ... Despair ... And made me search my own soul. Reading this novel was an extraordinary experience. An outstanding debut.

Philip Hart, a fortysomething Norfolk school teacher, has sought solace in drink as he sees his life start to unravel. He suspects, with good reason, he is about to lose out on a promotion to a younger colleague who is assumed to be sleeping with his wife. And one night, driving home drunk from a village pub, he knocks down and kills an old man fleeing from a nearby mental hospital. To avoid blame Hart hides the body in a roadside culvert, but guilt forces him to learn the identity and background of his victim, so he can make some kind of amends. On a visit to the mental hospital he discovers clues to a decades-old mystery somehow involving the inmate, prompting him to sever all ties with his previously cloistered existence. An interesting book

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the advance copy of this novel.

I'm sorry to say I agree with the previous review. I loved the sound of the plot, from the description, but Stepping into the Sun didn't deliver for me. I am from the area the novel and I didn't find the setting really resonated with me. It felt inaccurate and slightly unimaginatively drawn. It leans back on a couple of cliches that I found unsatisfying and - toward the end - it becomes clear that the novel isn't going to deliver on the premise either.

The structure didn't quite work, for me, and I had some questions around clarity that I never got the answer to. The central character is imaginatively drawn, and that's why I stuck with it. I could actually imagine a television adaptation could work really well here, the tone lends itself well, but couldn't hand on heart recommend for readers.

I was unable to connect with any aspect of the story, and my interest wasn't grabbed at all. Many thanks to Matador and Net Galley for providing me a copy to read and share my thoughts on. I wish I'd felt differently about this one.