The Silent Brother

by Simon Van Der Velde

The Silent Brother by Simon van der Velde is a gritty novel set in Newcastle, based on the author’s own experience of working there as a lawyer. It’s a sad story about alcoholism, drug dealing and violence. As van der Velde writes in the afterword, “In a community with so little hope, overstretched social services and policing priorities elsewhere, it’s easy for the gangsters to take over — and anyway, no one likes a grass.”