One of David Bowie's 100 Must-Read Books of All Time

It is a Thursday evening. After work Martin Blom drives to the supermarket to buy some groceries. As he walks back to his car, a shot rings out. When he wakes up he is blind. His neurosurgeon, Bruno Visser, tells him that his loss of sight is permanent and that he must expect to experience shock, depression, self-pity, even suicidal thoughts before his rehabilitation is complete. But it doesn't work out quite like that. One spring evening, while Martin is practising in the clinic gardens with his new white cane, something miraculous happens ...

The Insult is one of those rare, perfect, all-consuming books where your life takes on a new colour and texture for the days you are in its thrall * Mail on Sunday *
An astonishing exploration into the blurred hinterland where fiction meets fantasy ... Both crisply precise and extravagantly daring ... The Insult is a remarkable achievement * Sunday Telegraph *
A stunning premise, brilliantly unravelled ... It confirms Thomson in the front rank of English authors * Observer *
The Insult met every requirement I felt I could possibly have of a novel ... Breathtakingly clever * The Times *

RUPERT THOMSON is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels, of which Air and Fire and The Insult were shortlisted for the Writer's Guild Fiction Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize respectively. His most recent novel, Death of a Murderer, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Novel Award. His memoir This Party's Got to Stop was published in 2009.