The House of Broken Bricks

'Haunting prose that cracks the English pastoral novel and lets the darkness in. A pleasure to read.' SARAH MOSS 'Wonderful . . . brave in its deep truths about loss and love' INGRID PERSAUD 'A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.' JO BROWNING WROE 'Shocking and powerful . . . This is the best kind of story telling.' VICTORIA HISLOP 'Rich and earthy, it's one of those books that demands a quiet space for reflection.' EVIE WOODS Ain't nothing wrong with being broken. Nothing at all. You're like these houses, not a whole brick in em and look how strong they are. 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.