THE HOUSE OF BROKEN BRICKS

Something heavy hangs over members of the Hembry family as they navigate their individual griefs.

Tess and Richard are fighting. “I don’t know what’s worse, them fighting or them being silent,” their son Sonny thinks. His twin, Max, feels the cracks forming in their family as well. The twins’ differing skin colors are a source of speculation in their small English town. Sonny takes after his mother, who has “brown skin, shiny brown like a conker,” and Max takes after his dad, “pale and peaky.” And though they’re twins, they’re treated differently by outsiders. Tess and Sonny endure microaggressions, and Sonny intuits that when his mother is “not thinking about London, she’s dreaming about owning a house in Jamaica.” In addition, there’s an unnamed something hanging over the Hembrys’ heads and causing pain. The chapters alternate among the perspectives of each family member, some in first person and some in a close third, exploring the ways each character views their household and the larger landscape of the town. Williams’ elegant prose is enriched by vivid descriptions such as this, from Sonny: “I dream about house bricks glowing tangerine orange in the evening sunlight. Over in Hector’s field, the hawthorns are covered in dark red berries....In the grass, acorns shine like wet gems.” Williams delays the revelation of what’s caused the rift in the family, skillfully using foreshadowing to keep the reader invested: “‘We can’t keep pretending this is normal,’ [Richard] continues evenly, his gaze fixed on his own face—gaunt, almost ghostly, so pale, with dark shadows weighing down his eyes. The last fourteen months have aged him ten years.” There are many more hints like this woven into the narrative for readers to pick up and begin seeing the full picture. The chapters are divided into sections called Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer, which mirror the household’s moods. Whether or not the family will stay together depends on the changing seasons.

A subtle, complex, and gorgeously written delight.