Swati Avasthi (2010) Split. New York, Random House. 978-0-375-86341-7

Swati Avasthi uses the voice of a 16-year old boy to tell the story of family violence. Jace is the son of a respected high court judge who regularly abuses his wife, causing significant physical injury and, as we come to discover towards the end of the book, taking away her capacity for self-determination.

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]

[Spoiler alert]

At the beginning of Split, Jace has been thrown out of the house as a result of standing up to his father, protecting his mother, and fighting back. He flees across the US to his older brother who had made a similar journey a few years previously. His brother has changed his identity and set up a new life to protect himself from a father not ready to relinquish control or tolerate being disobeyed.

Jace’s contact with his brother threatens the safety of both of them, and Jace comes with a secret – he is already guilty of perpetrating violence and abuse towards a romantic partner. The story unfolds with both brothers taking steps to free themselves of the cycle of abuse and understanding the boundaries and limitations of all those involved.

I found the book a really compelling read. It is a YA (young adult) novel and good that issues like this are explored with people who might be embarking on their first serious romantic and sexual relationships. The abuse does very much focus on extreme violence, however, and it might have been helpful for some of the controlling aspects of abuse to have been been explored. Jace’s involvement in violence is portrayed as a loss of control and an anger management issue, rather than the more complex aspects of domestic abuse displayed by his father’s patterns of control. Violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

Swati Avasthi worked with survivors of domestic violence for three years through her co-ordination of a legal clinic and has said that during her time she spoke with thousands of survivors and spoke out, in lectures, about some of the issues.

In this story she wanted to explore what it would be like for a child growing up watching your father hit your mother, while still admiring aspects of your father. She hints at, but doesn’t develop, the emotional abuse the father uses to manipulate his younger son.

Split won several awards:

• The 2010 Silver Parents Choice Award

• The 2010 New Mexico State Award

• The 2011 International Reading Association Award

• The 2011 Cybils Award.

http://www.fwiwreviews.net/2010/10/before-split-blog-tour-guest-post-by.html#.X61YE2iwnIU