This Family: Your perfect summer read

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Mary is quietly calm, rising to the challenge of three girls and doing her best, despite their differences. Her kind, caring nature can be seen in her acceptance of Rosie and Irene, both of whom she takes in and looks after. After a life with many challenges, we hope she finally has her happy ending. There are difficulties galore and several surprises in store as Emma and Phoebe and their half-sister, Rosie, arrive. Will the siblings behave themselves for Mary’s sake? Absorbing and unexpected. It took some turns that I really didn't see coming, but which nonetheless felt plausible and satisfying -- Rebecca Wait The intimacy of a family with all its complications is a quietly devastating read. Loved it.' JULIE OWEN MOYLAN

West Suffolk-based author Kate Sawyer has her second book out next month – and it promises to be a n ambitious new novel about family life. Here, the award-winning novelist explains how life has been since her first book was published two years ago A masterfully composed, perfectly observed family chronicle that feels utterly real in its evocations of grief, anger and love -- Emma Hughes This Family is the latest by The Stranding author, Kate Sawyer. I loved that book so much and I know lots of you reading this did too. I think that this will appeal to readers who love family sagas and the intimate dynamics of family life.I loved Mary's relationship with her mother in law (Irene), and the questions this raised about our obligation to family. I started this novel with great hopes but at some point I became disconnected. I regret that and the fact that I found it impossible to rescue myself. This was in part due to the switching between timelines and narratives which I am afraid to say confused me, and in part simply because I felt a total disconnect with these characters. This is a family with a difficult past and the tension between them was tangible and totally to be expected but at points this just made me feel rather uncomfortable. Extraordinary. So elegant, compelling and beautifully written... a vivid and insightful exploration of the complexities of sisterhood, adulthood, desire and grief." - Daisy Buchanan Imagine a much loved family house, the shade of a willow tree and the heat of a September day. Mary has raised her children in this house and today she will marry again. Can these wedding celebrations bring together a dysfunctional family unit as this is the first time in many years they will be under the same roof? There is her eldest daughter, Emma flying in from Los Angeles, the middle child is Phoebe, a journalist and a recovering alcoholic and here with her partner, well known actor Michael Regis and their two young children. Finally, there is much younger Rosie with her partner Danyal in tow. Let’s not also forget Mary‘s mother-in-law, the straight talking Irene. Can this fractured family set aside their issues for their much loved mother? Kate Sawyer is an extraordinary, original writer... An immersive and absorbing read - I could not put this book down.' ALIYA ALI AFZAL

Set over the course of an English summer’s day but punctuated with memories from the past forty years of love and loss, hope and joy, heartbreak and grief, this is the story of a family.

Author

I have to say, I LOATHED Phoebe. If she were my sister I think I'd have cut her out of my life. Though the depth of feeling I felt towards her is a real testament to Sawyer's ability to craft characters, and it's a wonderful thing to feel in any deep way about a character. A tender yet vivid novel in both form and voice, its threads as bright as the tapestry of life it depicts. I lived, laughed and ached for these characters throughout. A superb accomplishment’ – Wiz Wharton

Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures Lyrical, literary and luminous ... buy it and treat yourself to writing at its finest." - Bethany Clift Laura Bates is a Sunday Times Bestselling author, an activist and speaker. Laura founded the Everyday Sexism Project in 2012 and has gone on to write multiple best selling non-fiction books about gender equality. She has spoken in the United Nations, the Houses of Parliament, is regularly called on to provide evidence for parliamentary reports and has been awarded a British Empire Medal for her work on gender equality. The scattered members of Mary's close family are coming together to celebrate her marriage. Her one wish is that they can lay aside their differences for one day, to make one happy memory in the house that has meant so much to them all over the years. An ambitious new novel of family life past and present from the author of the Costa Book Awards shortlisted The Stranding.

LoveReading Says

She herself has been through some trauma though, and as the eldest sister she was put in some positions of responsibility that should never have been hers to bear. Absorbing and unexpected. It took some turns that I really didn't see coming, but which nonetheless felt plausible and satisfying.' REBECCA WAIT It is my dearest wish, that after so long apart, I am able to bring this family together for my wedding day." I haven't really read any novels before that so clearly depict a short stint of time, while also providing the characters' entire life histories for context. The details were revealed gradually, and they were revealed well, eventually bringing the separate threads to a satisfying and interwoven conclusion. This family has been broken for some time, but today they will all be together for the first in time in years. Marys daughters, Phoebe, Rosie and Emma together in their childhood home despite the emotional and physical distance that has been pushing them further apart.