FAMILY STORIES

Family dynamics drive many novels, from parents and children to the complexities of marriage, and the relationships between siblings.
 "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance". George Bernard Shaw

 From family secrets to domesticity, the following books all feature families in some form:

The Second Wife. Elizabeth Buchan

Minty Lloyd, the once irresistible mistress, now finds herself deeply uneasy in her role as the second wife to her husband Nathan and mother of their twin boys. Though she has finally achieved the comfort and stability she once craved, family life has brought her more disappointment than she can admit, and she is yearning to rekindle the ambition, and career, she has left behind.

The Secret Life of Luke Livingstone. Charity Norman

Luke Livingstone is a loving father and grandfather, successful in his career and well-liked in his community. But Luke has a secret which he has hidden all his life - he wants to become the woman he knows himself to be. His family is thrown into turmoil - how do they deal with the person they have always seen has husband, father?

Inside the O'Briens. Lisa Genova

A story of how one family copes with the diagnosis of Huntington's disease. Joe O'Brien, Boston cop and father of four adult children, has the disease, and each of the children has a fifty percent chance of inheriting it. A simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate and the focus is on daughter Katie - does she really want to know or can she live with the anxiety of not knowing?

The long, Long Trail: War at Home, 1917. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Book four of the War at Home series, a family drama featuring the Hunter family and their servants. The war rages on and David has returned, ravaged, from the Front. His sister Diana copes with pregnancy on her own as her husband is away, fighting. Aunt Laura helps with the war effort and Beattie struggles to keep the household together.

The Trip of a Lifetime. Monica McInerney

More than sixty years after emigrating to Australia, Lola Quinlan is returning to Ireland, taking her granddaughter and great-granddaughter with her. Lola is apprehensive as to who, or what, will be waiting for her in her home country.

My Sister's Keeper. Jodi Picoult

Thirteen-year-old Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate, who has leukemia. Anna has never questioned her role of helping Kate, but since becoming a teenager she has started to question who she really is, rather than being defined by her sister.

The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year. Sue Townsend

When her twins leave home for university, Eva decides she has had enough of the world and retreats to her bed to think. Brian, her husband, is upset - who will cook his dinner? Eva soon becomes a local celebrity.

Family Life. Akhil Sharma

It's 1978, and in Delhi eight-year- old Ajay and his older brother are waiting for plane tickets to arrive so that, together with their mother, they can fly to America to join their father. The family settles well in New York, but then tragedy strikes. How will they cope in their new homeland?

SEE ALSO:

Shallow Breath. Sara Foster
The Forever House. Veronica Henry
Savannah Winds. Tamara Mckinley
Boy, Lost. Kristina Olsson
The Kindness. Polly Samson
War Cry. Wilbur A Smith