Comedy. I really didn’t know that novels could be comedic. Really. One Brother Shy is a very serious comedy. Alex, painfully shy and introverted, has developed a facial recognition program for a company called Facetech. Based in Ottawa, the office he worked in is an open space office with ‘lame fabric partitions’ masquerading as cubicles. His cubicle mate, Abby, with a high energy personality, seems to have limited respect for Alex’s obvious introversion. Alex lives with his mother who has been a single parent since his birth. His mother passes away early in the story. The night before she had told him that she wanted to tell him something important. The next day, he is alone with only their housekeeper, Malaya. He sees a psychologist, Dr. Wendy Weaver, regularly. They are the only other people he trusts openly. The name Gabriel comes up through the book as the cause of his social shyness and inability to speak freely. Alex is not curious about exploring that part of this life, but is curious about the information his mother didn’t get to tell him. A trail of clues in his home and a mysterious regular monthly bank deposit are curiosities. Even more so is a half picture in his mother’s bank deposit box showing a man holding a baby. The photograph is also trimmed so the man’s face is not visible. There are numbers on the back but no reference to what they mean. It is the photograph that is of the greatest curiosity and motivates Alex to move out of his comfort zone. His journey begins when he uses the facial recognition to search for answers. Learning that he has a twin brother, he very, very bravely tells his very incredibly toxic boss that he is taking time off to continue his search. His travels take him to London, to Russia and back to Canada.
This is a very easily read book full of sarcastic humour, weaving Alex’s story through Russia/Canada hockey, issues of social media and some Canadian politics, but always with a light conversational manner. Terry Fallis addresses several serious issues in this story with a very light and sensitive touch.
“I just stayed still, not that I could move much.
I knew any movement would make it worse.”
~ Alex, One Brother Shy
Title: One Brother Shy
Author: Terry Fallis
Copyright: 2017
Format: Soft cover
ISBN-978-0-7710-5072-5
ebook ISBN-978-1-7710-5073-2
Type: Fiction
Publisher: McClelland & Stuart
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