The story of a young American war veteran returned to his hometown after being blinded in Iraq by a homemade bomb and the unexpected love he finds with a mysterious dancer who is fleeing darkness and violence of a different kind. An astonishing debut novel from one of the music world's rising stars.

Black Jesus is shy, and a killer.

Black Jesus is white as a dove

A young marine returns from Iraq, blinded and scarred by a roadside bomb and harbouring a terrible secret. Called Black Jesus by his fellow soldiers on account of his name being Lionel White and his birthday being Christmas Day, he has returned to his decaying home town to sit in the back of his mother's junkshop, pop OxyContin and try to forget what he's seen. Into his life one day rides Gloria, a mysterious young dancer who is fleeing darkness and violence of a different kind.

Part love story, part protest at the broken promises lying at the heart of the American Dream, Black Jesus is a passionate, twisted hymn to the marginalised and forgotten.

'We are in the presence of a rare, fiery brilliance' The Guardian.

'There is a boldness to Simone's writing, the fierceness and fearlessness of complete honesty that pushes into places that simply take the breath away.' The Telegraph.