Cham [Paperback]

"'A fine and moving debut novel... a rare treat' Independent '[A] modern day immorality tale about the attempted rehabilitation of a child implicated in murder... delivered with a horrific sense of foreboding' Arena"

`Jonathan Trigell's writing soars when describing the sublime mountain scenery and the rushing, redemptive exhilaration of skiing... But he's equally at ease conveying the murky moral ambiguity of Itchy's life... Exposing the darkness at the heart of a white world, Trigell's second novel is tense with foreboding: a clever, contemporary cliff hanger'

'Does for extreme winter sports what Alex Garland's The Beach did for backpacking'

`The main narrative is made more measured, by interpolations of historical material on Byron, Shelley and other Romantic superstars, plus three short stories inspired by Romantic texts... they are outstanding imitations, and some of the best material in the novel'

`At the other end of the spectrum are those writers who have literary ideals but - almost in an act of defiance against some of their peers - still manage to entertain their readers with a story. For some reason many of the best of these - Emily Bronte, Leo Tolstoy and so on - are long gone. There are contemporary writers, however, following in their footsteps... Jonathan Trigell is one of these writers. Cham, his second novel, is serious but never worthy'

'There's a chilling edge to this tale of skiing, sex and partying'

'A murky, romantic look at the underbelly of season life'

'[Itchy] is the walking, stalking spirit of Chamonix: forever chasing the beautiful adrenaline rush, but also driven by a dark force'

As with all good writers - but unlike the multitude of poor ones - Trigell doesn't make the mistake of giving his characters knowledge or awareness that they should not have. Itchy, for much of the story, is imperfect and ignorant - all that this novel is not.

Long-dead Lord Byron started it. The rock star of his age. But a poet with about as much relevance to the blood grudge struggle that marks modern life for most of humanity, as he has to the practice of sliding down snowy slopes on planks of wood. And yet, it was thanks to Byron that Itchy ended up living in Chamonix Mont Blanc, the death-sport capital of the world, among the high mountains and low morals. In the intervening years he has tried hard with alcohol and adrenaline to numb a past he can't atone for. Now a serial rapist is stalking Cham's tourist-thronged streets, haunting the same shadows as Itchy and triggering an obsession which will lead him far from Europe's zenith, to the depths of the valley and himself. The promise of Jonathan Trigell?s first novel, Boy A, is fully realised in this evocation of the world of extreme sports, where the reckless violence of a callow man?s life comes back to haunt him.

Jonathan Trigell was born in 1974 and has lived in Hertfordshire, Manchester, Derby and Stone. In 2002 he completed an MA in creative writing at Manchester University. He has been a TV extra, an outdoor pursuits instructor and a door to door salesman; plus has worked right across the winter sports industry, from mopping floors and washing dishes to journalism and organising major events. His first novel, Boy A, won the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for best work by an author under 35, and also the Waverton Award, for best first novel of 2004. Jonathan now lives in Chamonix, where he is writing his third novel, Genesis.