Hereditation tells the story of the Sloane family. Living in New York in the middle of the 20th Century, brothers Erwin and Maynard share their brownstone Harlem house with their mother, a perpetually ill woman who has recently suffered the indignity of being abandoned by her philandering husband, Ezra.
When Ezra dies of a heart attack, a chest is unearthed, the contents of which force the Sloane brothers to look at themselves in a different light. Will they succumb to the depravity that has haunted their family for generations, or will they be the first to break free and escape the madness and perversion?
Darkly humorous, wickedly disturbing, and utterly compelling.
Extract
Erwin’s skin looked paler than ever before, the colour of the faded paper that lined their nest of a home, the colour of wallpaper paste. Maynard would sit with him after they ate dinner and watch as Erwin rearranged himself into the position in which he would spend the rest of the evening, propped against the wall, slumped down slightly, his back unable to support him as it should, his neck lolling slightly. Maynard watched dust settle on him, the air full of the stuff, caught in the rays of light coming through the windows. It clung to what was left of Erwin’s hair; to his shoulders, to his feet: shoeless, and, in that same light, almost translucent. Erwin spoke to himself more, mumbling as he built the living room up. He began tearing the books on the shelves apart, yanking the pages out to help him build his towers, sticking them together with water, smoothing the edges. Maynard didn’t argue. Instead he gave him more pills, more of the painkillers – Erwin never complained of any pain, but Maynard thought that was because he was protected against it by his diligent nursing – and more of the vitamins, even though he knew that Erwin would never improve. Erwin’s teeth were falling out at an alarming rate, so Maynard adapted their diet, completely changing what they ate. He bought masses of vegetables, shop-bruised or old and ready for being thrown out, and let Erwin suck on them after boiling them down to their maximum softness, chunks of carrot and sweet potato dissolving to nothingness in his mouth, under the pressure of his gums.
“I’m feeling better, I think,” Erwin told him one morning. Maynard knew that he was lying. He realised, as he looked at him in the tired light of the morning, that his brother wasn’t long for the world.
About James Smythe
James Smythe was born in 1980 in West London, and migrated to Wales, where his maternal family lived. He has a PhD from Cardiff University, currently teaches in various places, intermittently performs in an improvised comedy group and has recently authored a book about Twitter. Hereditation is his first novel, and is about love and fathers. His second novel will be about serial killers, and his third about God, probably.
Hereditation is published as part of the Bright Young Things series by Parthian Books. All books in the series are from debut authors.
