This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
This is the final instalment of this year’s #summerreads as here in the Northern Hemisphere we head back to school this week. Sometimes I don’t even publish any picks in September but this week I wanted to shine a light on one of the best books I read this summer (and, at close to 60 since the middle of May, there were a lot to choose from!).
Wayne Ng is an Ottawa-based writer whose latest, The Family Code, was pitched to me as follows: “Wayne is an Asian-Canadian writer who has written the best book of his career – a gritty look at a single mom whose own family upbringing threatens her own son and daughter. Wayne has poured his decades-long experience as a preeminent social worker into his nuanced portraits of some normally very hard-to-sympathize-with characters.”
I was intrigued, especially as typically in the summer I would shy away from a gritty read.
From the publisher:
Every family has rituals and routines holding them together. But sometimes they are the very things that tear them apart. The Family Code is a gritty family drama featuring the troubled life of Hannah Belenko, a young single mother dogged by the brutality of past traumas and a code of silence that she must crack in order to be free—or else lose everything.
Hannah was raised by this code and rules her own family by it. When she loses her daughter to the state and her boyfriend threatens her, she flees from Ottawa to Halifax with her remaining son, six-year-old Axel. While she bulldozes her way through everything and schemes to protect him, Axel flounders in the chaos. He begins to doubt his mother and her dream of a way out. With her life crashing down, Hannah is driven by desperation to survive yet hangs on to elusive hope.
With unvarnished and high-voltage prose, The Family Code unabashedly reveals the power and perils of parenting, but also the longing and vulnerability of children.
Hannah was, for me, at the start of the book, a fairly unlikeable character, making bad decisions affecting her family and that made me sad for her children (and her). But the story quickly progresses and Hannah’s character reveals itself to be a lot more complex than she first presents. We learn about her upbringing and how early traumas informed her choices and decisions as an adult. Throughout the book, I flip-flopped from feeling empathetic towards and protective of Hannah to feeling exasperated and frustrated by her character’s choices and actions. She’s a living example of there always being more to someone’s life than what they present to the rest of the world.
The book is told from both Hannah’s and Axel’s perspectives; the latter offering childlike naivete alongside insight beyond his years, revealing simple needs (to be loved and to feel safe) that, at the end of the day, are the basis of his mother’s needs as well. Your heart will break for Axel, you will smile with him, and you will remain hopeful throughout the story because of him.
Ng tackles delicate and difficult issues eloquently and with sensitivity and his vast experience as a social worker allows him to present us with complex, real characters who broaden our understanding of the challenges many face within the social (and children’s) services system in Canada. You truly never know what someone is going through.
An unexpectedly riveting, important read that I could not put down. Highly recommended.
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Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher. I was not asked to review the book and the publisher has not reviewed this post prior to publication. Opinions are 100% my own.
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Buy The Family Code on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country).
For free worldwide shipping, find The Family Code on Blackwell’s.
Support your local Indie bookstore and purchase The Family Code on Bookshop.org.
Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. This post also contains a Blackwell’s affiliate link. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!
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Buy my books! In the French kitchen with kids and French Food for Everyone: le goûter (after school snacks), le dîner (dinner) and le petit déjeuner (breakfast) are out now! Click here for details and how to order!
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Thanks for all the reviews over the past few months. I can attest that several have ‘hit the mark’ down under and were read in very quick time. More of your recommendations currently being sought.