Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2024
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
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.
"A subtle, complex, and gorgeously written delight." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Lyrical and haunting ... Readers will be moved." ―Publishers Weekly
"The House of Broken Bricks is a tender and powerful novel, all the more profound for its apparent simplicity, and establishes Williams as an exciting and original new voice." ―The Observer (UK)
"Haunting prose that cracks the English pastoral novel and lets the darkness in. A pleasure to read." —Sarah Moss, author of The Fell
"Fiona Williams captures the rural English countryside, exposing it to a loving and critical eye through a family haunted and grieving the loss of love, themselves, and the promise of the future...I really loved this book. The language, structure, and characterization are all exquisite, and Williams is clearly a writer in control of her craft." —Asale Angel-Ajani, author of A Country You Can Leave
This information about The House of Broken Bricks was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Fiona Williams holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Westminster and an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. Originally from South-East London, she now lives with her family on the Somerset Levels, and much of her work focuses on rural diversity and the relationships between identity and place.
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