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Alexander Trocchi was one of the seminal beat figures. Born in Scotland, he made his way in Paris and New York, and Young Adam is one of his most important works. Joe is a drifter who works as a hired hand on a barge traveling the Clyde River between Glasgow and Edinburgh. As... Read Full Overview

Soon to be released as a film, this first novel by Scottish beat writer Trocchi is an absorbing existential thriller--a lost gem of world literature reminiscent of Camus, Bukowski, and Burroughs. "Everyone should read Young Adam."

First published in 1957, this was Trocchi's first novel. The corpse of a young woman is found floating in the canal. Tension develops between the narrator and his companions as his relationship with the woman unfolds, sucking the reader into his disturbed psyche.

Joe is a drifter who works as a hired hand on a barge traveling the Clyde River between Glasgow and Edinburgh. As the story opens, he finds the corpse of a young woman drifting downstream. Was it an accident? Suicide? Murder? As the police investigate and arrest a suspect, it... Read Full Overview

Originally published in 1957, this is an existentialist murder thriller set on a canal somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The corpse of a naked woman floats downstream and an innocent man is tried for the crime. Alexander Trocchi is the author of Cain's Book.