Shattered: A Son Picks Up the Pieces of His Father's Rage

A sensitive and penetrating reflection on coming of age in a Dutch immigrant family scarred by violence

Arthur Boers’s earliest memory was of shattered glass. His father threw a potted plant at his mother, and she ducked as the plant crashed through a window of the family home. His mother cleaned up the shards that day; later in life, he would find himself called upon to pick up the pieces as well.

In Shattered, Boers reflects on coming of age in a family scarred by violence. The son of...