In his second novel Matt Nable tackles issues of loss, loyalty and difference through a disarmingly fresh and confidently written narrative that is a pleasure to read. Stephen and Lawrence Kennedy are twins; children of a career sergeant, living on the barracks. It’s a closed, safe world where everything is clearly defined but there are hints that behind closed doors some people don’t cope all that well. Stephen’s family has other issues to cope with; Lawrence, born with some chromosomal deficiency, is different. A sweet and loving child, he is devoted to Stephen but for the young Stephen that devotion and Lawrence’s backwardness and lack of inhibition can be profoundly embarrassing.

Their world comes apart when the family is involved in a severe car accident, their parents are killed and Stephen suffers severe injuries. Without their parents, Stephen feels an even greater obligation to Lawrence, especially when they are sent to another town to live with a friend of their mother’s and her strange husband. Stephen is torn between his responsibility towards Lawrence and his need to escape his own traumas. Nable’s characterisation of Lawrence and his world is particularly affecting and at times gently and truly funny. He and his equally disabled friend, Henry, take a trip to the city, which becomes a wonderful and outrageous adventure for both of them.

Nable vividly brings to life the issues that families must face when confronted with disability – especially the conflict between satisfying one’s own ideas and passions without betraying the felt responsibility to the disabled loved one – there aren’t that many choices and often those lives end in tragedy. Faces in the Clouds is a very satisfying book.