My Brother Simple by Marie-Aude Murail
Translated by Adriana Hunter. Bloomsbury, 2012. ISBN 9781408814710.
Highly recommended. I was unaware of this French author's pedigree
as a writer but will, after reading this fine book read more. A
household name in her native France, Marie-Aude Murail has with this
book achieved something great. By turns funny, sad and
heart-wrenching, this book never patronises or preaches. My
Brother Simple; follows the story of two brothers; seventeen
year old Kleber and his Twenty-two year old brother, Barnaby, the
'Simple' of the title. Simple has learning difficulties and Kleber
is struggling to look after him whilst completing his final year of
high school.
In an attempt to rescue Simple from the Institution he has been
living in since their Mother died, the two young men embark on a
heart-warming yet darkly comic adventure in share-housing amid the
tenements of Paris.
It is a thoroughly accomplished, poignant story of brotherly love
and family responsibility and coming of age. Lovers of Mark Haddon's
excellent Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will
find plenty here to entertain and ponder.
Highly recommended.
Stephen Bull