Book Summary and Reviews of The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams

Book Summary

Every marriage has its seasons...It's autumn when we meet Tess, but her relationship with Richard is in a deep, cold winter. A winter so harsh, their union may never see the bright light of spring.

Tess is a Londoner whose relationship with Richard transports her from a Jamaican diaspora in the city to the English countryside, where predatory birds hover over fields, buses run twice a day, neighbors barter honey for cider, and no one looks like her.

As Tess and Richard settle in, the dramatic arrival of their fraternal twins—one who presents as black and the other as white—recasts the family dynamic, stirring up complicated feelings and questions of belonging. Tess yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was, instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen where cooking Caribbean food becomes her sole comfort. And Richard obsesses over getting his crops planted rather than deal with the conversation he cannot bear to have.

In Fiona Williams' quartet of unforgettable, alternating perspectives, secrets and vines clamber over the house's broken red bricks, and although its inhabitants seem to be withering, 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.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. The narration of the novel rotates between the four members of the family. How does this shared narration inform your understanding of the family and its dynamics? How might the novel change if told from only one perspective?
2. The House of Broken Bricks explores questions of home and belonging. What makes a place feel like home? Is it possible that more than one place can feel like home?
3. The difference in Max and Sonny's appearances is the first thing most people noticed about their family. How does this difference inform the way that people outside their family treat them? How about within their family? How does it shape Max and Sonny's senses of self and identity?
4. "It had become an unspoken rule; she tends to ...