An accomplished journalist, songwriter and recording artist, Davitt Sigerson produces a strange, uneven novel in his first effort at fiction with Faithful. With its odd, fractured prose, Faithful often comes across as more of a dream, or perhaps a song, than a story. The dreaminess might have worked in this novel of pain, betrayal and love if it weren’t for the graphic sex and language that wrenches the reader out of the dream and into a novel that we’re not quite sure how to react to.

Faithful is the story of Nick, a newly married Londoner who couldn’t be happier with his new wife, Trish. Nick is the envy of his friends who all believe he has landed a great catch. His life improves even more when Trish becomes pregnant. Everything comes crashing down when Trish announces that her ex boyfriend Joe has told her he still loves her and she has decided to leave Nick to go back to him. Nick loses not only his wife, but also his unborn child and the plans he had for a happy family life.

What follows is Nick’s strange life of supporting Trish while she begins her life with another man. He’s there for her when their daughter Charlotte is born, there for her when she decides to start sleeping with him again, and even there for her when she becomes pregnant with Joe’s child. However, his heart truly belongs to his daughter, whom he falls in love with at first sight. The touching parts of this novel belong not to Nick and Trish, but to Nick and Charlotte. These are the only parts of the book that show off the good side of Nick and make the reader soften toward him.

Unfortunately, the scenes with Nick and Charlotte together are the only parts of the novel that show any positive sides of the characters in Faithful. The rest of the book describes terrible acts done by not so nice people and the reader finds it difficult not to turn away from them altogether. Add to this the author’s apparent love for the "f" word and graphic sex scenes and you’ve got a weird, uneven novel that alternately confuses, touches and completely turns off the reader.