Chris Lynch- Photo of Chris Lynch used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Photo copyright © 2005 by Julianne Chester.

A harrowing portrait of date rape told from the point of view of the accused.

Born in Boston, Chris Lynch is the Printz Honor Award-winning author of several highly acclaimed young adult novels, including Freewill, Gold Dust, Iceman, Gypsy Davy, and Shadowboxer, all ALA Best Books for Young Adults. He is also the author of Extreme Elvin, Whitechurch, and All The Old Haunts. He mentors aspiring writers and continues to work on new literary projects. He lives in Scotland.

Judges' Citation

Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable is a young adult novel told by a self-proclaimed “good guy” who date rapes his best high school friend. Keir is a seductive narrator in the tragic-comic tradition of Humbert Humbert and Holden Caullfield. He sees everyone’s mistakes as “inexcusable” but his own. In prose that is relentless, driving, beautiful, spare and vivid, Inexcusable shows the unraveling of young lives, giving us the riveting view of a crime close up, from the inside out.