In “Nobody’s Home” Dev Betham joins two men who have been gutted when learning their lives weren’t as they appeared. This gentle, thorough character study depicts resilience at its best as readers watch them grow and grow up.
A successful artist, Nick has hit a creative dry streak. His dad’s suicide, one of many wrecks his father inflicted, forces a return to the town he ran from 20 years ago as a boy.
Jonas, who works as a veterinarian in his lover’s research lab, loses his work and home when he realizes his partner is unfaithful. Absconding with a research dog, he answers an ad to become a small-town Vet. There he finds Nick, nursing his dad’s pooch.
But, after a quick heated encounter, Jonas realizes Nick is leaving town quickly, and firmly sets limits. Can these two men nurture a friendship so they can concentrate on healing themselves?
"Nobody’s Home" has many admirable features. First, Ms. Bentham doesn’t pander to the “love and sex heals all” paradigm. Instead she creates equal interest in Nick and Jonas’s burgeoning careers and their relationships with their pets. When they develop a bond, it is that of two self-sufficient adults, finally learning what pleases them, before they attempt to please each other.
Secondly, Bentham shows growth through every day occurrences:
“’Morning little squirrel.’ It raised its head at the sound of Nick’s voice. With its tiny ears and squished face, it really did look like a tailless squirrel. Nick stroked a finger across the silky fur of the pup’s back. It was nice to have someone be happy to hear him. No wonder his father had taken to raising dogs.”
And finally, Bentham exquisitely portrays emotions through images, and images through words:
“Nick stared at a length of rope on the stairs. The bulk of it lay in a jumble on the third step while the rest trailed down to the foot of the stairs, the end coiling on top of a heap of handwritten papers. He looked up. A large shiny eye-bolt sat in the middle of the dark ceiling. How long had his father been planning his death?”
“They stayed still and the room filled with the feeling of Jonas’s heart cracking open, and the sound of Nick’s breath and the feel of Jonas’s defenses dissolving a little more each time Nick exhaled-in and out and in and out.”
To be able to capture the horror of a suicide’s aftermath, and love’s bloom - with equal realism - Dev Bentham is a gifted author. If you want a grown-up read, with mature characters, you’ll be pleased with “Nobody’s Home.”
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Top reviews from other countries
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EllynynReviewed in Germany on February 19, 2017
Überraschend feinfühlig und intensiv
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2017
A really sweet enjoyable story
