The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams (HC)

As Tess traces the sunrise over the floodplains, light that paints the house a startling crimson, she yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was. Instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen - Tess and Richard's 'rainbow twins' - Tess absorbs the quiet. The nights draw in, the soil cools and Richard fights to get his winter crops planted rather than deal with the discussion he cannot bear to have.

Secrets and vines clamber over the broken red bricks and although its inhabitants seem to be withering, in the damp, crumbling soil Sonny knows that something is stirring . . . As the seasons change, and the cracks let in more light, the family might just be able to start to heal.

This is the story of a broken family, what they see and what they cannot say laid bare in their overlapping perspectives. It is a tale of life in the cracks, because in the space for acceptance, of passing and of laying to rest, the possibilities of new energy, light and love, are seeded.

REVIEWS

"The writing is gorgeously evocative . . . The novel is written in the present tense so it feels like everything is happening in the now and has a raw immediacy to it. This makes the story even more poignant [...] There are wonderful descriptions in the novel and plenty of warm, intimate detail of the natural world. Williams complicates the nature of race, inheritance, land and belonging in complex ways through her characters, but also with the language which she uses [...] It's a novel which will stay with you long after you have read it." ― Irish Independent

"Beautifully woven . . . Brilliantly told." ― Red

"Deeply atmospheric . . . A story about identity that will chime with anyone who has ever felt they don't fit in. But it is also a love story: about love for the countryside, and the sort of love that can make - and break - a family."― iNews

PRODUCT DETAILS
Hardcover Edition
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 978-0571379552
Pages: 400