Today, I read the whole of Shtum by @jemlester. It completely sucked me in in a way I was not expecting. Ben's son Jonah is severely autistic, and as their council refuses to pay for residential schooling, Ben and his wife agree to a fake separation in a hope that single parenthood will help tip the scales. Ben and Jonah move in with Ben's elderly father Georg, and through battles against the council, the three generations of men open up to each other. Ben is a brilliantly sardonic, awful man, who says terrible things but then sweet things and you just can't decide how much you root for him or just for Jonah to get the life he deserves. Combine personal demons, dark humour, the draconian benefits system and the history of Hungarian Jews, and you have Shtum. This copy was sent to me by @orionbooks and marks the beginning of a spree in autistic fiction. #bookworm #bookblogger #booknerdigans #bookstagram #book #books #shtum #jemlester #autism #asd #autismbooks #booknerds #fiction #bookseller #book📖 #aspergers