My Brother
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
With mesmeric drawings, My Brother tells of the warmth that flows between grief-stricken father and daughter, as well as the deep ties of family – strong enough to plunge the depths of the sea and back
A sensitive portrayal of loss, My Brother is the story of a child whose brother emerges from the depths of the fjord on the end of her father’s fishing line. Though grieving in different ways, the child and her father find comfort in remembering their brother and son together. Øyvind Torseter’s wobbly line drawings and dark cross-hatched blotches sprawl across pages bathed in warm reds and oranges, melancholy blues, and hopeful greens. Accompanied by Torseter’s captivating images, Laura Djupvik’s poetic lines provide an opening for children and adults to talk about grief and the power of memory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This haunting English-language debut by Djupvik opens as a father and child narrator sit together at a breakfast table. Loose line drawings with occasional saturated color by Torseter (The Most Beautiful Story) envision the child inviting the father to go fishing, though straightforward text notes, "Father doesn't like the fjord much anymore." They set out, the father worrying about the narrator falling in ("Sometimes I want to fall in, I want to go down there"), and the father's efforts at fishing result in his catching "my very own brother." It's an uncanny, surreal moment, the sibling shown as limp but seemingly alive. When they get him home, they bathe and revive him—though he never speaks—and put him to bed. The next morning, the brother wanders to a place in the forest where he encounters a being he once loved, and Father says "he can stay no longer.... You and I will stay." Capturing the sense of closure and peace the brother's visit gives the grieving family ("Now we know he exists"), this lingering work envisions a tender, deliberate farewell. Character skin tones reflect the white of the page. Ages 5–9.
