Honey Brown’s latest novel is a sensitive portrayal of a challenging subject, and showcases Brown’s talent as a storyteller. What is left unsaid is perhaps more powerful than what is told, and the reader is allowed to discover the truth between the lines of the narrative.

It takes Adam ten years to stand up to his father’s abuse. When he does, it doesn’t just change his home situation – it changes his life and forces fourteen year old Adam to question the truth of his past. As he navigates a world he knows nothing of, his only ally is the streetwise Billy a youth whose actions seem uncommonly altruistic. In this world, love is warped, truth is twisted by fear of reprisal, and the havens of church and family are not what they promise.  Bonded by abuse and loneliness, Adam and Billy struggle to escape a life constrained by fear, poverty and society’s judgement. Yet together they uncover the mystery of Adam’s past.

Through the cracks is ‘narrated’ by Adam, a character so cut off from society that his point of view is almost omniscient. His character emerges as cautiously as Adam ventures into society. For much of the story it is his complex companion, Billy, who is the more intriguing. As Adam’s guide and possible saviour, it is largely left to Billy to reveal the setting and the nature of the society to which he belongs. This approach gives truthfulness to the story. It adds another layer of character that would otherwise be hard to show. Yet the trade-off is the limitation on sense of place, so prevalent in Brown’s earlier works. This is fitting as Adam has no sense of place and for all his street smarts nor does Billy. The two are sympathetic though distant from the reader, just as they are distant from broader society – one that judges them on appearance, unwilling to look too closely for fear that what lurks in the back alleys of the city might be just as present in the leafy suburbs.

Through the Cracks doesn’t shy away from the truth, nor does it judge or preach as Adam’s story draws us into a world only hinted at in news reports. It explores issues of truth and trust, but ultimately is a story of redemption.