Outcast

Roman Britain. Beric, the only survivor of a Roman shipwreck, is raised by a British tribe but never fully accepted as one of them. When misfortune is interpreted as proof that the sea-born foundling is cursed, he is expelled from the community and enters the Roman world in search of another identity. Instead he encounters exploitation, enslavement and punishment.

Beric’s path carries him from a Roman household to the salt workings and eventually to forced service as an oarsman with the Rhine fleet. The brutality of slavery strips away any easy contrast between Roman civilisation and tribal belonging. His return to Britain offers neither restoration nor revenge, but the possibility of a home built through work, competence and freely chosen human ties.