Books with characters who are outcasts or pariahs suffering serious social ostracism within their communities

[Rainbowheart]

Hi guys,

I found the Fiction Books With Harshly Judged Characters list and was looking for more books with this general theme.

Something along the lines of The Scarlet Letter. The character is an outcast or pariah within his or her community. He or she should suffer not just dislike or bullying by one or two characters, but serious social ostracism by the entire group.

It can be a family that is shunned by the neighbors, a student who is shunned by the entire school, for any reason. A character may have committed a crime, had an illegitimate child, is the child of a prostitute, is gay in an unforgiving time or place, etc. Whatever the reason, some sort of social stigma should be attached to the shunning.

Thanks mucho for any suggestions!

[Len]

Historical novel from Roman Britain but it probably still counts: Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff.

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks, Len! Outcast is a great example.

[...cats?]

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

[Rainbowheart]

Thank you, cats!

[Len]

Star Man's Son, 2250 A.D. Set in a post nuclear holocaust Earth. Teenager ostracized by his group for his mutations caused by radiation.

[Pamela]

The Country of the Kind Note that this is available as a book, but is a short story.

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks, guys!

[Pamela]

The Moorchild

[Isabel (kittiwake)]

The Witch's Daughter by Nina Bawden.

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, thanks guys!

[Adele]

I don't know if Gathering Blue counts - main character is definitely shunned and outcast, but then she also has a special talent that is valued.

[Rainbowheart]

Yes, absolutely. Gathering Blue is a great example. Thanks, Adele!

[Penny]

The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan - he's shunned because he's deaf and the girl who befriends him is also shunned because she's seen as different too

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, thanks Penny! The Raging Quiet is a perfect example.

[Rainbowheart]

A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove is another.

[Taffeta]

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232576.Ha...

[Elaine]

The Last Witch of Scotland by Phillip Paris

[Elaine]

The Last Witch of Scotland is a recent release about a disabled young girl 'Janet Horne' and her mother in Invernesshire hounded and executed as witches.

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks Taffeta and Elaine!

Harriet the Spy and The Last Witch of Scotland for the links.

[Elaine]

The First Witch of Boston by Andrea Catalano is another adult read set in the same place as The Scarlet letter. It is a well executed historical fiction with sex scenes some might find gratuitous in light of the latest oral sex & mouth cancer concerns.

[J]

Jude the Obscure

[Karen]

All The Childeen are Home
Where the Crawdads Sing
The Witches of Salem, 1692

[bookel]

Three books I've read that should count.

Dark Heart (The Seeker Chronicles)
by Betsy James
Seventeen-year-old Kat's struggle to learn the ways of her dead mother's people in the hill country is complicated by her failure in the bear ceremony, a spiritual rite of passage, and her attraction to the blind outcast Raim.

White Midnight
by Dia Calhoun
While barbarians threaten the land, mysterious visions help guide fifteen-year-old Rose when she is given the chance to free her family from servitude, if only she will provide a wicked old man an heir fathered by his deformed grandson, "the Thing" locked in the attic.

Petey
by Ben Mikaelsen
In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.

[KeenReader]

Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell

[Rainbowheart]

Thanks, guys!

The First Witch of Boston, All the Children Are Home, Where the Crawdads Sing, The Witches: Salem, 1692, Dark Heart, White Midnight, and Petey for the links to the above suggestions.