‘Tender and powerful.’
Observer

‘A pleasure to read.’
SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall

If every marriage has its seasons, Richard and Tess’s is in a deep winter.

As day breaks over the Somerset Levels, Tess watches the chamomile clouds part. This morning, two sunrises graze the frosted floodplains: one rises low over a stretch of willows, while the other shines brightly from beneath the water. The light paints the house a startling crimson: a painful beauty that Tess, Richard and their son Max – riddled with grief – find easy to ignore.

But none of them can ignore Sonny, who desperately wants things to go back to the way they were before.
As the seasons change, and the cracks in the bricks let in more light, might this broken family find a way to start to heal?

Readers love The House of Broken Bricks:
‘Gorgeously written, lyrical, atmospheric and emotional.’ @readingnpainting
‘Brilliant story, a joy to read, couldn’t put it down.’ @lucy.reads.a.lot
‘A masterpiece! Beautifully written, a brilliant debut novel.’ @the_postcard_edit
‘Heartwarming and heartbreaking. Tender and shocking. A joy to read.’ @suzannahslibrary
‘Absolutely spot-on in how it portrays children’s emotional intuition, this is a beaut of a book.’

‘Haunting prose that cracks the English pastoral novel and lets the darkness in. A pleasure to read.’
SARAH MOSS, author of Ghost Wall

‘A clever, heartbreaking, heartwarming depiction of family love, grief and the possibility of hope.’
JO BROWNING WROE, author of A Terrible Kindness

‘Poignant and unexpected . . . brave and subtle.’
EMMA HEALY, author of Elizabeth is Missing

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.

‘Wonderful . . . brave in its deep truths about loss and love.’
INGRID PERSAUD, author of Love After Love

‘Shocking and powerful . . . This is the best kind of story telling.’
VICTORIA HISLOP, author of One August Night