brother. do. you. love. me.

March 25, 2024
British travel guide Manni Coe’s heartfelt debut chronicles his close relationship with his younger brother, Reuben, who has Down syndrome. The title comes from a text a 38-year-old Reuben sent Manni from the adult care center in Dorset his brother and his parents had selected for him. Recognizing the message as “clearly a cry for help” rather than an innocuous expression of affection, Manni flew from Spain to retrieve Reuben from his room at Portland Place and bring him to live in his family’s cottage in the English countryside. Manni was alarmed by his brother’s physical and mental regression—Reuben hadn’t spoken in nearly a year—and resolved to help reverse the damage, even as he fought off dizzying waves of guilt and self-doubt. Part memoir, part therapeutic exercise (the text is dotted with colorful felt-tip illustrations from Reuben, which are included in an attempt to “give Reuben his voice back”), the book alternates between a touching account of the brothers’ adult reconnection and moving sections on their boyhood, when Manni, who is gay, intuitively connected to his sibling’s outsider status. This deeply felt ode to brotherly love will melt readers’ hearts. Illus.