Split

Split, by Swati Avasthi, is a young adult novel that has received numerous awards, including the 2010 Silver Parents Choice Award, the 2010 New Mexico State Award, the 2011 International Reading Association Award, and the 2011 Cybils Award. Split has been nominated for eleven state awards, and it has been published in four languages. It’s path to publication was unique; this debut novel was funded with a grant from the University of Minnesota, where Avasthi studied. Knopf finally won the rights to publish the novel in 2010.

Avasthi was inspired to write Split after working at a domestic abuse law clinic. There, the author met a woman who experienced a traumatic, abusive situation. She had two children with her—a boy and a girl. Split is told from the point of view of a teenage boy whose father physically abuses his mother, and who has abused a young woman himself. Split is written in the present tense.

The narrator’s name is Jace Witherspoon. Jace lives in River Forest, Illinois with both his parents. Jace often fights with his dad in order to keep his father’s attention away from his mother. His brother Christian taught him to do so. Jace’s father prides himself on being able to hit his wife and Jace without leaving any visual evidence of his abuse. One day, Jace loses patience with his father’s violence towards his mother and fights back, to the point that Jace’s father kicks him out of the house after beating him up. Jace’s mother gives him money and Christian’s address—Christian ran away years ago. Jace’s father is still searching for Christian, but has been unable to find him. Jace is severely injured when he arrives at Christian’s house.



Christian takes him in. The reader learns that Jace beat Lauren, his ex-girlfriend, after she slept with his friend. This action continues to haunt him, to the point that Jace refuses to date anyone, even though he’s more than attracted to Dakota, his coworker. Jace and Christian strategize to free their mother from their father. They invite her for Thanksgiving, but she refuses to come, so they decide to go to River Forest. When they arrive, their mother is not yet at home, so Jace goes to visit Lauren. They kiss, and he apologizes to her. She forgives him easily, but he insists on repeating his apology. Lauren tells Jace that she knows about his father’s treatment of him and his mother. She reveals that when Jace claimed his broken nose was the result of a soccer game a year ago, she realized that his father was beating him.

Lauren offers her forgiveness so that both she and Jace can move forward in their lives. Despite her forgiveness, Jace is still saddled with guilt. To convince Jace—and herself—that they can move forward, Lauren slaps him. He leaves then, and visits some of his old haunts while he awaits his mother’s arrival. When she comes home, she won’t leave with Jace and Christian, even though they try tirelessly to convince her to. The brothers leave to go back to Christian’s house, and that’s when Jace confesses to his brother that he beat Lauren. Disappointed in his brother, Christian tells Jace that he has to move out.

Jace goes to stay with Mirriam, Christian’s girlfriend. Jace has developed a platonic relationship with Mirriam, and he trusts her. He confides in her about Lauren, and Mirriam believes that Jace has changed and can continue to do so. When Christian finds out where Jace is staying, the two argue. Jace vents his anger by yelling at Christian, but doesn’t feel the urge to strike him. Christian realizes that he abandoned Jace, and apologizes for leaving him to the mercy of their father and his violent temper. When Jace tells Dakota about what happened with Lauren, she responds that she appreciates his honesty about his past, but that, even though he is trying to rein in his anger, she would not forgive him if she were in Lauren’s shoes.



Jace decides that Lauren has become like his mother. She is meek, forgiving, and apologizes when she has done no wrong. Dakota tells Jace that she needs time to process the information about his violent past, and he tells her that he will be there if she needs or wants him. At the end of the book, Christian and Jace have made peace and are both living in Christian’s home, going for morning runs together.

In addition to writing novels, Swati Avasthi is a teacher. She has taught at Hamline University, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and for the Loft Literary Center. Bidden  is Avasthi’s second book, which Knopf published in 2012. Her third book, Chasing Shadows, has also received favorable reviews since its publication in 2015.