Join us for an evening with Fiona Williams as she talks about her stunning debut novel The House of Broken Bricks, a powerful tale of family, loss and life in the countryside.
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.
Reviews
‘Shocking and powerful, it took me into a new experience. . . This is the best kind of story telling – characters I genuinely care about, and a narrative that demands to be followed.’ VICTORIA HISLOP
‘A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.’ JO BROWNING WROE
‘Wonderful….brave in its deep truths about loss and love.’ INGRID PERSAUD
Tickets: £8 without book (Admits One, ticket redeemable against a signed copy The House of Broken Bricks) or £15 with book (Admits One, includes a signed copy of The House of Broken Bricks).