Roxanne - Paul Iddon

You don't need a weapon to be dangerous-just a reason.

Roxanne is the searing story of Roxanne Bateman, a forty-four-year-old woman navigating life after prison. Three years behind bars for stabbing her abusive partner, Mark Dalton, have left her scarred, isolated, and desperate to stay invisible. But freedom is no fairytale. Judged by society, haunted by guilt, and crushed by a system that offers little mercy, Roxanne struggles to survive in a world that never cared for her safety to begin with.

In a run-down Durham hostel, she meets Tasha-a fellow survivor with her own secrets-and together they tread the fragile line between solidarity and self-destruction. But when the past refuses to stay buried and danger creeps back in through familiar faces, Roxanne must decide: keep running, or fight for a future no one believes she deserves.

Paul Iddon's Roxanne is a gut-wrenching, compassionate novella that pulls no punches. Told in raw, urgent prose, it explores the quiet devastation of domestic abuse, the cruelty of broken systems, and the fierce resilience of women who refuse to stay silent.