The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams

"Ain't nothing wrong with being broken. Nothing at all. You hear? You're like these houses, not a whole brick in 'em and look how strong they are.”- Fiona Williams, The House of Broken Bricks

In The House of Broken Bricks,Tess, a Londoner with Jamaican roots, moves to the English countryside with her white husband, Richard. They have fraternal twins, Max and Sonny-one who presents as black and the other as white. This brings up a lot of issues about identity and belonging as Tess struggles to fit in a very white community. An unexpected loss fractures the parent’s marriage and the book follows the family’s path to healing and acceptance. This was a beautiful read! There’s a plot twist that comes out at some point in the book which gives the story another depth of meaning.

The first thing I liked about The House of Broken Bricks was the strong use of imagery. The book spans the seasons-starting in the crispness of fall(autumn) and ending in the lush abundance of summer.

Fiona Williams, who trained as a biological scientist before becoming a writer, paints really vivid pictures of animals, gardens, farms, plants, trees. We hear the “kree kree” of the egrets and see the brown chestnut of Sonny’s skin.

Above all, the writing is just beautiful. Tender and poetic, simple yet really profound, lyrical and soulful.

Take a look at this sentence: “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.”

Just a warning that if you don’t like lyrical novels or prose written like poetry-this might not be the book for you. It’s very descriptive and the plot does move a bit slowly and can be repetitive.

I also loved the ending! At many points in the book I was rooting for Tess to leave that man because the marriage really didn’t seem to be working, but the story ends on a redemptive note. For me, it was a story about undying familial love, unbreakable sibling bond and regeneration.

Check out The House of Broken Bricks from your local library or buy from an independent bookstore.