Shtum - Jem Lester

The international literary
triumph with rights sold in seven countries, Shtum is a powerhouse debut that untangles the complicated strands
of personal identity, family history, and lapsed communication. Drawn from Jem
Lester's experience of raising an autistic child, Shtum is "a darker, sadder version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but just as
moving" (Observer). In
this darkly funny and emotive novel, Ben Jewell has hit a breaking point. His
profoundly autistic ten-year-old son, Jonah, has never spoken, and the family
is struggling to cope. So when Ben and Jonah are forced to move in with Georg,
Ben's aging and cantankerous father, three generations of men-one who can't
talk, two who won't-are thrown together. As Ben confronts single fatherhood, he
must learn some harsh lessons about accountability, all before the arrival of a
tribunal that will determine the future of Jonah's education. Funny
and heartbreaking in equal measure, Lester's debut is a powerful and
unapologetic story of love, sacrifice, and determination that examines the
vagaries of human emotion and provokes discussion about an often misunderstood
disorder. With streaks of brilliant humor and levity, Shtum is ultimately uplifting and compulsively readable, easy to
recommend, and memorable long after the final pages.