The first thing I saw was the wheelchair.
The first thing she saw was the doper.
Ben Goddard is an embarrassment – as a cyclist, as an athlete, as a human being. And he knows it.
Now that he’s been exposed by a positive drugs test, his race wins and his work with disabled children mean nothing. He quits professional cycling in a hurry, sticks a pin in a map, and sets out to build a new life in a town where nobody knows who he is or what he’s done.
But when the first person he meets turns out to be a cycling fan, he finds out that it’s not going to be quite as easy as that.
Besides, Polly’s not just a cycling fan, she’s a former medical student with a chronic illness and strong opinions. Particularly when it comes to Ben Goddard…
A Spoke In The Wheel has been shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize.
It was also shortlisted for the first ever Selfies Award for self-published books.
The judges who have drawn up this shortlist feel privileged to have read some exceptional works of self-published fiction from a very wide range of genres. The shortlist we’ve come up with contains works that can confidently stand against the very best fiction being published in the UK today. – Jo Henry, BookBrunch
It was also a finalist in the 2018 North Street Book Prize.
Jowitt has a talent for writing warm, witty fiction that teems with empathy for its characters, and in this book she’s played to her strengths, keeping her narrative grounded in her core trio. – The Independent Literary Fiction Blog
This could have been a heavy read but it wasn’t. Instead, Ben’s first-person narrative was warm. It enabled you to care for the characters, to root for them when they down and admonish them when they made silly decisions. Relatable and honest with great representation of chronic-illness and bisexuality – Books Inter Alia
A Spoke in the Wheel is available…
… in paperback format from Lulu
… in ebook format from the iBookstore
Kathleen Jowitt 