|
Adichie,
Chimamanda Ngozi Purple
hibiscus
Kambili
Achike is a 15-year-old Nigerian girl whose father is a religious
fanatic who regularly and viciously beats his family for the
mildest infractions. But
when she is unexpectedly allowed to visit her liberated Aunty
Ifeoma, family secrets and tensions bubble dangerously to the
surface.
Berg,
Elizabeth
The
Art of Mending
Returning
home for a family reunion, Laura Bartone and her brother, Steve,
are stunned by their sister's allegations of shocking behavior on
the part of their mother, and must come to terms with the truth
and lies within their family.
Bragg,
Melvyn
Son
of war
World
War II soldier Sam Richardson and his eight-year-old son, Joe,
struggle with the changes that the war has brought to the family.
Cisneros,
Sandra
Caramelo
Lala
Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo,
or shawl, makers. During the annual car trip to
Mexico City
, Lala listens to her grandmother’s stories about her family,
and tries to separate the truth from the “healthy lies”.
Clark
,
Nancy
Hills
at home
Three
generations of a
New England
clan all return to the family homestead, turning Lily Hill’s
solitary life upside down, and providing a visiting sociology
student with lots of material.
Hadley,
Tessa Everything
will be all right
“Spanning
five decades of extraordinary change in women’s lives,
Everything Will Be All Right explores the complicated
relationships in one family. The young ones of each generation are
sure they can correct the mistakes of their parents; the truth, of
course, is more opaque.”
Hegi,
Ursula Sacred
time
At
age seven, Anthony has difficulty adjusting when his twin cousins
move in. Then a
tragic accident occurs which tears the family apart and haunts
Anthony into adulthood.
House,
Silas Parchment
of leaves
A
Cherokee woman named Vine marries Saul, a white man.
Although she must leave all she knows behind, she is
content until Saul leaves to find better paying work, and she must
fight off the attentions of his brother.
Kidd,
Sue Monk Secret
life of Bees
Fourteen
year old Lily, haunted by her mother’s death, is taken in by
three black, bee-keeping sisters. As she enters their mesmerizing
secret world of bees and honey, she discovers a place where she
can find solace - and the truth about her mother.
Lahiri,
Jhumpa The
Namesake
A
portrait of the immigrant experience follows the Ganguli family
from their traditional life in
India
through their arrival in
Massachusetts
in the late 1960s and their difficult melding into an American way
of life.
Lawson,
Mary
Crow
Lake
In
the rural farm country of northern Ontario, the lives of two
families--the farming Pye family, and zoologist Kate Morrison and
her three brothers--are brought together and torn apart by
misunderstanding, resentment, family love, and tragedy.
McCullough,
Colleen Touch
Scottish-born
Alexander Kinross writes home from the gold fields of 1860s
Sydney
for a bride and marries young cousin Elizabeth, who struggles with
Alexander's rowdy ex-madam mistress and illegitimate son.
McDermott,
Alice Child
of My Heart
A
teenage girl, raised on the east end of
Long Island
among the country estates of the rich, reflects on her
understanding of human nature during a seemingly idyllic summer
spent with her eight-year-old cousin Daisy.
Paule
Marshall
The
Fisher King
Fifty
years after jazz pianist Sonny-Rett Payne fled family disapproval
in the
U.S.
for life as a superstar in
Paris
, his eight-year-old grandson returns to Sonny-Rett's old
Brooklyn
neighborhood to attend a memorial concert in his honor.
Mistry,
Rohinton Family
Matters
In
mid-1990s
Bombay
, Nariman Vakeel lives in a crumbling apartment with his two
middle-aged stepchildren--the mild-mannered Jal and his
domineering sister, Coomy, who plots to turn over the care of her
stepfather to her younger sister, Roxana.
Quindlen,
Anna Blessings
When
a baby is left on their doorstep, the lives of Lydia Blessing, the
elderly town matriarch, and Skip, her down-and-out caretaker, are
transformed. Skip wants to keep the baby and raise it himself. To
his surprise,
Lydia
wants to help.
Robinson,
Marilynne Housekeeping
Ruth,
a young girl struggling to overcome haunting family memories in a
town which will not let her forget, gradually grows close to
Sylvie, the sister of her dead mother.
Strout,
Elizabeth Amy
and Isabelle
Isabelle
and her daughter Amy have a complicated but close relationship.
That relationship is threatened when Amy falls in love with her
math teacher.
Tyler,
Anne The
Amateur Marriage
Marrying
quickly during World War II after falling in love at first sight,
a mismatched couple discovers that their different personalities
and approaches to life are taking a toll on their relationship and
their family.
Wood,
Monica My
only Story
Thirtysomething
hairstylist Rita falls in love with a younger man, John Reed, a
man troubled by a terrible, five-year-old crime, when his brother,
Roger, had killed his wife and then himself, orphaning their
toddler daughter, Aileen.
|
