The Silent Brother by Simon Van der Velde

 

325 Pages

You can buy The Silent Brother...Here

You can follow Simon Van der Velde...Here

You can follow the publisher Northodox Press...Here

I received a free copy in return for an open and honest review.

• The Blurb...

The Past Never Dies. When his beloved little brother is stolen away, five-year-old Tommy Farrier is left alone with his alcoholic mam, his violent step-dad and his guilt. Too young to understand what has really happened, Tommy is sure of only one thing. He is to blame.

Tommy tries to be good, to live-up to his brother’s increasingly hazy memory, but trapped in a world of shame and degradation he grows up with just two options; poverty or crime. And crime pays. Or so he thinks.

A teenage drug-dealer for the vicious Burns gang, Tommy’s life is headed for disaster, until, in the place he least expects, Tommy sees a familiar face…

And then things get a whole lot worse.

• My Review...

This is, in places, a heart rending novel. A cross between Shuggie Bain and Brighton Rock but set in Newcastle. 

It tells the all too familiar tale of Tommy. A young lad with an alcoholic mother, violent step dad and a younger brother taken into care. Sadly his life is mapped out for him. Squalor, drink, drugs, petty crime, after all apples don't fall far from trees, do they? Is there a chance for redemption? Can he rekindle his love for his childhood sweetheart? Can he find his lost brother? More importantly can he survive the grubby, seedy backstreets of Newcastle.

The writer has a definite gift for placing you IN the story. It's like VR with 360 vision. However it is a  double edged gift. We have all seen places like the one depicted in the story and all know people like Tommy. If like me you can't stand to watch the news anymore for all the sadness and deprivation in the world, then through the writer's skill you will feel the sadness and deprivation in Tommy's world. I think I often read to escape this world not to experience it again through prose. The words can feel too real sometimes and that's not denigrating the author : it's praising him. It is an emotional hard read in places. I don't set much stall by how many stars a book gets. I think its more about the review narrative. I gave this 3.5 stars  basically because I don't like heart breaking sad stories that reflect the world I was brought up in, it's a bit raw, a bit tender. However I think most people will give this emotionally immersive novel more stars than this grumpy old man, who has seen the reality of Tommy's story played out in real life too many times.

The author has a distinct style. It catches certain, definitive, individual snapshots of the past and sees them through a lens of memory such as the moment when Tommy's brother is taken, or the fight following the football match. He writes like how I remember my youth. Not getting the full flow but shining a bright beam on the highlights (or lowlights), and letting you deduce the path between them. It reminds me a lot of how David Peace writes.

Of course he used this signature style in his excellent earlier anthology Back Stories. Where you are invited to guess the unknown famous/infamous protagonist in several short stories.

After reading this book, you feel that you have lived through it vicariously.

• Selected Quotes...

"Sure, you cant change where you're from, but you can change where you're going. And if you do, then you can change who you are."

" They wouldn't call this a community pub. But there's one thing it's got in common with the Black Boar. The drug, This is Saturday night and people are out to get pissed. Laughing, fighting or f*****g, they're out to escape from themselves."

"He was bluffing like the rest of them. Lying his head off because that's what the world is. Doctors, lawyers and the prime-f*****g-minister, all telling us everything's going to be alright when the truth is nobody really knows what they're doing."

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (see our review Here)

Back Stories by Simon Van Der Velde (see our review Here )

• About The Author...

Simon Van der Velde has worked variously as a barman, laborer, teacher, caterer and lawyer, as well as traveling throughout Europe and South America collecting characters for his award-winning stories. Since completing a creative writing M.A. (with distinction) in 2010, Simon’s work has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards including; The Yeovil Literary Prize, (twice), The Wasafiri New Writing Prize, The Luke Bitmead Bursary, The Frome Prize, and The Harry Bowling Prize – establishing him as one of the UK’s foremost short-story writers.

Simon now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, with his wife, labradoodle and two tyrannical children.