The Fortunate Brother

Review copy courtesy of Canongate Books via NetGalley, many thanks.

I haven’t read the previous two books in the series so came to this fresh. There is plenty of back-story to be fed in and I have no idea how this would suit people who had read the whole series, but for me it meant I could read the book as a stand-alone. I was sucked into the lives of the inhabitants of the small coastal community from the first page - a superb feat of characterisation - and was rooting for them all, even the least likeable personalities. The story is a whodunit with great emotional atmosphere and it rollicks along at a tremendous pace. Highly recommended.

If you like" bleak and gritty" Donna Morissey has provided it in this beautifully balanced tale set in a remote town in Newfoundland where everyone is fighting their own demons. The wonderfully named Sylvanus Now is utterly consumed with grief caused not only by the loss of a favourite son in a tragic accident but by the loss of his fishing business. His remaining son Kyle feels he somehow is responsible for the breakdown in his family where, since his brother's death, silence and alcohol are the ever present partners. His mother is forced to live with two men who can't share their feelings and so is marooned and alone when she is struck with a further tragedy. Grim twist follows grim twist but amazingly and gradually little shafts of sunlight break through onto this bleak and icy landscape. I won't spoil things by revealing any more of the plot but, believe me, just as it proves to be with the Now family, you shall welcome the warmth and hope initiated by tentative, simple hugs between people who never stopped loving each other. A warm ending to a chilling novel.

If you like" bleak and gritty" Donna Morissey has provided it in this beautifully balanced tale set in a remote town in Newfoundland where everyone is fighting their own demons. The wonderfully named Sylvanus Now is utterly consumed with grief caused not only by the loss of a favourite son in a tragic accident but by the loss of his fishing business. His remaining son Kyle feels he somehow is responsible for the breakdown in his family where, since his brother's death, silence and alcohol are the ever present partners. His mother is forced to live with two men who can't share their feelings and so is marooned and alone when she is struck with a further tragedy. Grim twist follows grim twist but amazingly and gradually little shafts of sunlight break through onto this bleak and icy landscape. I won't spoil things by revealing any more of the plot but, believe me, just as it proves to be with the Now family, you shall welcome the warmth and hope initiated by tentative, simple hugs between people who never stopped loving each other. A warm ending to a chilling novel.

I only realised this is the third in a three-volume series of books after I started to read it but I felt it worked well as a standalone read. However, it's made me curious to know more about the events that have brought the family to this point so I may well look out the previous two books. Initially, I thought this was going to be a depressing read because of the troubled nature of all the characters and it took me a while to get used to Morrissey's writing style. Not being familiar with Newfoundland culture, I can't testify to the authenticity of the vocabulary and dialogue but it seemed right for the characters and pretty soon I adjusted to the rhythm. The story is a combination of family drama and murder mystery but the mystery element doesn't feel tacked on because the way the various characters react to events (in particular the main protagonist, Kyle) seems believable given their state of mind. The unseen but ever present emotional heart of the book is Chris, Kyle's brother, who has died in an oil rig accident before the book opens. In various ways, all the family are struggling to cope with their grief and/or guilt at his death. In particular, Kyle - seen as the "fortunate brother" because he's still alive. Morrissey adeptly plays out how the surviving family members are driving themselves apart when they are at greatest need of coming together: ("Too isolated in their loneliness to feel the good still left to them.") Although bleak at times, this was an engrossing read.

I'd not read any previous stories by Donna Morrissey so was looking forward to reading this book. This is the story of the Now family who live in an outport in Newfoundland. I had to check on the word "outport" however I quickly discovered that it refers to a small fishing village usually in Newfoundland. Kyle and his family, immediate and extended, come over as very ordinary in the nicest sense of the word. The family has seen tragedy though and this leaves a shadow over them. The death of someone not generally liked in the outport makes for the main part of this story although there are other minor tales interwoven with that.

From the start I found the writing wonderfully descriptive. I thought it caught a mood or a feel for place and time very well. The more I read the more compelling the story telling became. I quickly found myself completely immersed in the story of everyday lives, likes, loves and hates in a small town environment.

At times this tale is tender and emotional, at times wryly humourous, at times macho and blokey. It is always very human and accessible. As someone from the other side of the pond I did find some of the colloquial writing - both words and style - took a little getting used to. However while the story here is quite simple, the telling is not and makes for a great read. I confess at times I did wonder just how fortunate the "fortunate brother" really was but I really liked the character of Kyle. I'd like to read more of Donna Morrisey's work based on this although I did find the end didn't quite live up to the standard of the rest of the book.

This a bleak, atmospheric and moving family saga and murder mystery. Set amongst a small coastal community in Newfoundland, Canada, at the heart of the story is the Now family. It is the first book of the trilogy that I read and I did feel my experience would have been significantly enhanced had I read the preceding two books. It is a character driven story that dwells on loss, grief, guilt and the struggles to keep the family together in the face of tragedies and turmoil.

The Now family have suffered a devastating knockback with the death of their eldest son, Chris, who dies on a oil rig in Alberta. The central focus is on Kyle Now, the youngest family member, otherwise known as the 'fortunate' brother simply because he is alive. There is isolation, silence, guilt and conflict within the family. Sylvanus, the father, hits the bottle to subsume his grief, the guilt ridden Sylvie leaves and the one person that epitomises hope, the mother, Addie, has to contend with further trials and tribulations. Kyle tries do his best to look after and protect the family but he is barely holding it together. To exacerbate matters, an abusive and bullying local man is murdered and his blood is discovered on the family pier. There are secrets and lies told in this beautifully written story as we learn what lies behind the murder. Hanging over the entire novel is the ghost of Chris.

This is a compelling read by an author with a real talent for writing. She captures the harsh life and landscape of the location well along with an air of claustrophobia. She is particularly successful in her characterisations, with the emotional depth and fraught emotions in a family that is grieving and suffering deep schisms. I just wish I had read her other books first. Many thanks to Canongate for an ARC.

An atmospheric and intriguing murder mystery

Kyle Now and his parents are recovering from the tragic death of his brother Chris in an oil rig accident. Kyle copes with his suffering by shutting himself off from those around him and venturing into the woods alone. His father, Sylvanus, deals with his pain by drinking excessively and his mother, Addie, who has tried desperately to keep the family together, is now facing breast cancer. One night, the body of a local man is found floating in a pool of water left by the tide. The victim, Clar Gillard, had clashed recently with all members of the Now family and, due to them both having been on an alcohol binge on the night of the murder, neither Kyle nor his father has any memory of what happened. As news of the killing quickly spreads through the small coastal town in Newfoundland, Canada, suspicion falls on the Now family and Kyle struggles to piece together what might have occurred to lead to Gillard’s death whilst simultaneously trying to deal with the unresolved tensions and conflict simmering between himself and his parents.

This was an exceptionally well-written book. The author perfectly captures both the dreary, grey atmosphere of a small coastal fishing town and also the feelings of suffering, guilt and pain that the Now family experience in their various different ways following the death of Chris. Kyle, the ‘fortunate brother’, is a realistic and sympathetic character and the way he isolates himself from his family and friends to cope with his pain and anger at losing his brother was extremely believable and well-expressed in the writing. The other characters, particularly Sylvanus and Addie, were also extremely realistic and their varying ways of coping with their grief were well-observed and made for poignant reading.

After the first few chapters, the story flows effortlessly from a moving portrayal of family grief to a complex and enthralling murder mystery. I particularly enjoyed the way that the night of the murder was written – the confusion and disjointedness of Kyle’s alcohol-fuelled binge peppered with blackouts and inconsistencies created a genuine mystery as to what exactly happened to the characters in that time, and as more evidence was revealed to Kyle and the readers as the story went on, I found myself second-guessing who could be the killer multiple times. All the locations in the story were well described and created a dark and sombre mood that matched up perfectly with the Now family’s feelings of hopelessness and despair. Despite this, the central theme of the story seems to be hope and, regardless of the bleakness of the location and the suffering that the characters experience, this is in a strange way quite an uplifting story with an ending that, although not entirely unexpected, didn’t feel contrived or predictable and tied up all the loose ends in a satisfying way.

Despite being the third book in a trilogy focussing on the Now family, I didn’t have any trouble following the plot or understanding the complex and multi-layered relationships between the characters, although I may have felt more connected to some of those in the background of the story had I read the previous two instalments. I also found that, at times, the way the Newfoundland dialect was written was a little hard to follow but at the same time this made the conversation between the characters more genuine. Mostly the writing flowed well and the descriptions of the landscape and inhabitants were excellent.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and extremely atmospheric story. I feel that people would benefit from having read the previous instalments beforehand, but The Fortunate Brother still works as a standalone novel and was both an emotionally moving family story and an intricate murder mystery.

Daenerys

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.