Andre Brink says of this novel: "Not in a very long time have I read something that gripped me so intensely". That's extremely high praise to live up to ? especially for a debut novel. And wow, does Alistair Morgan exceed expectations.

The novel follows a man's journey after a car crash that claimed the lives of his wife and young daughter and left him with no memory of the accident. As the days to slip by, John Wraith travels to Nature's Valley to escape the memories of his former life. There he meets a broken family, victims of a vicious crime ? a devoutly religious father, a rebellious teenage son, and a troubled teenage daughter, Jackie, for whom John feels a dangerous mixture of sexual desire and a need to protect.

And I literally could not put this book down. I read it while cooking dinner. I stole glances it at as I was getting ready for work. I even read it aloud to my housemate.

'Sleeper's Wake' is an unforgiving study of a man at his most vulnerable, and his most dangerous. It is a raw and emotionally brutal novel that deals with loss in its most harrowing form.

The main characters of the novel are antiheroes ? greatly flawed in a number of ways, although somehow still forgiveable. In the opening chapters of the novel it is hard to feel anything other than the deepest sympathy for John. And s the novel progresses, the layers of the man are torn away to reveal his past errors, his emotions and rage. However, the beauty of this novel is that one does not entirely abandon sympathy for John Wraith ? who as his name suggests is but a shadow of his former himself.

I was left stunned by his masterful handling of prose and the intensity of his descriptions. This is one of the most powerful books I have read in a long time and I was hooked from the opening lines to the very last page.

It is a relatively quick read ? 180 pages ? but it is a disturbing emotional journey. I was shattered and my head was still spinning after the huge climax followed by a rapid, detached conclusion.

Not a feel-good read by any means, but definitely something that should not be missed.