One of Us [Kindle Edition]

Iain Rowan (Author)

Book Description

Anna is one of the invisible people. She fled her own country when the police murdered her brother and her father, and now she serves your food, cleans your table, changes your bed, and keeps the secrets of her past well hidden.

When she used her medical school experience to treat a man with a gunshot wound, Anna thought it would be a way to a better life. Instead, it leads to a world of people trafficking, prostitution, murder and the biggest decision of Anna's life: how much is she prepared to give up to be one of us?

Shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger award, One of Us is a novel by award-winning writer Iain Rowan.


Praise for Iain Rowan's Nowhere To Go:

"Fine examples of modern crime stories, gripping and perceptive, probing the dark secrets of the human soul, just like an old Alfred Hitchcock movie... Crime enthusiasts must not miss the book: this is noir at its very best."
– SF Site featured review

"During the five years that I published Hardluck Stories, One Step Closer and Moth were two of my favorite stories. I loved the nuances and true heartfelt emotion that Iain filled his stories with, and Iain quickly became a must read author for me–everything I read of Iain's had this tragic, and sometimes, horrific beauty filling it, and was guaranteed to be something special."
– Dave Zeltserman, author of Outsourced, and Washington Post best books of year Small Crimes and Pariah

"A short story writer of the highest calibre."
– Allan Guthrie, author of Top Ten Kindle Bestseller Bye Bye Baby, winner of Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year

"Iain Rowan's stories never fail to surprise and delight, and just when you think you know what will happen next, you realize how much you've been caught unaware."
– Sarah Weinman, writer, critic, reviewer, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and News Editor for Publishers Marketplace

"Iain Rowan is both a meticulous and a passionate writer, and these stories showcase his ample talent wonderfully well. You owe it to yourself to discover Rowan's fiction if you haven't already had the pleasure."
– Jeff Vandermeer, author of Finch, Shriek: An Afterword, City of Saints and Madmen; two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award

Product Details

• File Size: 438 KB
• Print Length: 292 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1470075768
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: infinity plus (March 23, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007OC94I6
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,239 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Grim but absolutely gripping January 19, 2013

By H. D. Thomas

Format:Paperback

This is assured storytelling from a very talented author.
I first came across Iain Rowan (or IF Rowan) when I read Welcome To The Underworld- a collection of four beautifully written comic short stories about a wandering charlatan that are set in a mythical Chinese past.
This book is poles apart in content and style so I was even more impressed by how effortlessly he's carried off this taut and atmospheric portrayal of the 21st century European underworld of gangs, prostitution and people-trafficking.
Highly recommended. I definitely will be reading more of his books.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Debut Novel May 21, 2012

By Grooydaz39

Format:Paperback

One of the best written crime novels I have read for some time. Iain Rowan's strength in this novel is the strong characterisation. The story is told from the viewpoint of an illegal immigrant, Anna. The novel uses her viewpoint solely to tell the story. The plotline doesn't skip around and it's a steady progression. I have in the past found this kind of linear novel to be a bit tiresome at times. However, Rowan's strong narrative and excellent characterisation keep the novel fresh and interesting throughout. His steady insights into Anna's life are convincing and intelligently done. Rowan's portrayal of the world she inhabits is dark and bleak but convincingly real. There is nothing predictable about this novel and the few surprises the author throws in blindsided me completely. Anna's interactions are cleverly put and Rowan really gets us inside her thought processes with a depth I have rarely seen. This made the novel compelling and hooked me. Anna's intelligent scrutiny of the villains around her is, despite the darkness, not lacking in humour either.

A compelling glimpse into a world everyday people never see. A fantastic debut by Iain Rowan.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Blinder April 5, 2012

By J. Everington

Format:Kindle Edition

Iain Rowan has played a blinder with his latest book, and first full length novel 'One Of Us'. It is told from the point of view of Anna, a medical student who has come to the UK illegally. She is living in a hostel and working in a burger bar, when one day comes the chance to gain some identification papers - at the price of using her surgical skills for some local mobsters...

The story is told in the first person, and Rowan's depiction of Anna's point of view and character is accomplished and spot on. The characterisation of the others in the book, and the depiction of their changing relationships to Anna, is also extremely well done. The book takes a particularly adult and realistic at how friendship (as opposed to romantic attachment)comes about and falls apart. Despite, or perhaps because of, the first-person narrative the prose of the novel fizzes with great turns of phrase, acute observations, and sarcastic dialogue.

What really sets this book apart is its viewpoint - there's a palpable sense of anger at the way people like Anna are treated: the ignorance, the casual racism, the refusal to see. It's this that underpins the plot's twists and turns, and makes for a book both exciting and moving.

As I said, a blinder.

More About the Author

Hello, thanks for visiting.

I've written both novels and short stories, mostly crime fiction.

ONE OF US is my debut crime novel. It started as a short story published in Hitchcock's Magazine, became a novel, and ended up being shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger award for best unpublished novel.

I've also had over thirty short stories published. Some of those stories have been reprinted in Year's Best anthologies, won a Derringer Award, been voted into readers' top ten of the year, or been in anthologies nominated for awards..

NOWHERE TO GO is a collection of eleven of my previously published crime stories, many of which appeared first in print in magazines like Hitchcock's and Ellery Queen's.

ICE AGE is a collection of eight stories of the strange and the chilling that have been published in various places over the last few years.

And last, but not least, SEA CHANGE is something different again: a young adult novel like those I loved as a child by writers like Alan Garner and Susan Cooper, about haunted, folklore-ridden England.