“Careful” is the first word spoken in this moving debut novel, as a nurse places a newborn baby into the arms of eight-year-old Leon. The nurse and Leon’s mother then leave the boy alone with the baby and he starts to tell him the story of his life. The brothers share a mother but have different fathers (“I look like my dad. Mum says he’s coloured but Dad says he’s black but they’re both wrong because he’s dark brown and I’m light brown”). The new baby has “dusty blue” eyes, blonde hair and white skin. The difference in their skin colour will come to define the course of their futures in a searing story cutting to the quick of race relations in 1980s Britain.
The theme of carefulness – and carelessness – permeates this novel, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa first novel award. We see Leon and his baby brother, Jake, as they are sent to live with Maureen, who has fostered 22 children. With his child’s perspective we see Leon navigating a bewildering world: through snatches of overheard conversation; through discovered paperwork detailing his mother’s mental health problems; and through painful memories of fights between his parents. When he is nine, a social worker breaks the news that Jake is to be adopted by a new family, but that Leon will remain. Maureen explains to Leon that this is because Jake is “a white baby. And you’re not”; and that “life isn’t fair”.
It’s a visceral story of racial and social injustice, sensitively capturing the emotions of Leon, whose anger and grief are manifested in nightmares of fighting monsters.
The author – who worked for many years as a magistrate and in criminal and family law – portrays the pain of being parted from a sibling, the sense of being an outsider, and the search for love and belonging. Kit de Waal has crafted her characters with such care that the reader, too, cannot help but care.
• My Name Is Leon by Kit de Waal is published by Viking (£8.99). To order a copy for £6.15 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
