First published 2012
Patrick Melrose is five years old, bright and imaginative, but he lives in fear of his father's cruelty. His mother has given up fighting back. Today the family waits for guests to arrive at their home, and Patrick tries to navigate another day of his father's vicious treatment. He has learned to cope with the daily torment, finding ways to protect himself from the man who should care for him. His mother offers no real shelter from the storm. But this particular day brings something worse than Patrick has ever experienced, a horror that will divide his life into before and after. What happens to him changes everything, creating a wound that will shape the boy he is becoming. St. Aubyn places readers directly into Patrick's young perspective as his world fractures.
Genres: abuse, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century
197 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: child-abuse, emotional-abuse, physical-abuse