SUMMER BROTHER

In this thoughtful, empathetic Dutch novel, a 13-year-old boy struggles to care for his disabled brother.

Since his parents split up, Brian Chevalier hasn’t seen his mother or his older brother, Lucien, who is mentally and physically disabled, very often. He lives with his father, Maurice, in a trailer, learning to underpay shopkeepers and squeeze extra money out of tenants in the extra trailer they manage. But when the care home where Lucien lives lets Maurice know he'll have to move home temporarily due to renovations, Brian’s life dramatically changes. His mother is on her honeymoon, and Lucien can’t stay with her, leaving Brian responsible for Lucien. Although he loves his brother, Brian is too young to care for him by himself, and Maurice is often nowhere to be found. A new, friendly neighbor, Emile, tries to help out but only attracts Maurice’s wrath while the owners of the trailer, Jean and Henri, threaten to evict them. Robben, who has written one other novel for adults (You Have Me To Love, 2018) as well as a number of books for children, skillfully conjures a sense of unease, most notably through Brian’s first-person narration. Like most children who grow up in neglectful or abusive households, Brian does not fully understand that his father’s behavior is inappropriate, dangerous, or both, and he treats his brother with sometimes cavalier disregard, at one point tying him to the bed in order to leave to go see a girl at the care home on whom he has a crush. This can be upsetting, yet Brian’s love for his brother, and Robben’s care in writing his disabled characters, remains clear throughout this nuanced novel.

A sensitive yet unsentimental depiction of poverty and disability from the perspective of an abled character.