Brutal

Brutal is a raw and powerful debut novel which explores the life of a young man who makes a living as a prostitute. Paul, with the help of therapy, is trying to challenge what he has become - a person out of control on drugs and alcohol, desiring abusive and degrading sex, estranged from people he once loved. Moreover, his is facing his own mortality while living with H.I.V. Increasingly disappointed by the way men relate to each other he discovers that there are women around him to whom he can turn.Set mainly in London's underground club scene - where drug use is commonplace and casual sex something of an inevitability - Brutal offers an extraordinary, sometimes bleak portrait of a lost generation for whom death is as much a companion as lovers, friends, and family. Yet this is far from being a dispiriting novel, and although the subject matter may shock, the shining honesty of the writing will prove life-affirming and an inspiration.