This Family by Kate Sawyer

 

This Family by Kate Sawyer.

Published 11th May 2023 by Coronet.

From the cover of the book:

Mary has raised her daughters in this house. Watched them play and fight and grow up in this house. Today it is the house where she will get married.

The wedding celebrations have brought the fractured family together for the first time in years:
There is Phoebe and her husband Michael, children in tow.
The young and sensitive Rosie, with her new partner.
Irene, Mary's ex-mother-in-law.
And Emma. There, despite all that has gone before.

Set over the course of an English summer's day and punctuated with memories from the past forty years of love and betrayal, hope and joy, heartbreak and grief, this is the story of a family. Told by a chorus of characters, it is an exploration of the intimacies and transgressions that bring us to where we are, the changes that are brought about by time, and what, despite everything, stays the same.

***********

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. 

Much troubled history has kept these four generations apart, and it will take a lot for them to all be together in one place without the loss, heartbreak and betrayal rising to the surface. Mary hopes that the weight of this occasion will be enough to bring about a healing between them all, but some things are very hard to forgive - even among family.

The story plays out over the course of a single, gorgeous September day, in the house and garden that Mary moved into with her ex-husband many years ago. Her new marriage will be the last chance for her fractured family to celebrate together before she moves on, and it is her one wish that they get along - at least for this day.

As the story follows preparations for the party in Mary's beautiful garden, and the events that follow the wedding, the narration moves back and forth between the characters introducing you to their anxieties about this reunion, and their reflections on the history that lies between them. It does take a little while to settle into the rhythm of the novel, as intriguingly Sawyer chooses to 'show' rather than 'tell' her reader about how the characters actually relate to each other, through flashbacks to the moments that have brought them together, shaped their relationships, and torn them apart. It takes time to get to know the four generations - from great grandmother, grandparents, siblings and young children - but once you get a handle on the family set up, the story pulls you along on an intense tide of emotion that cuts straight to the bone.

Sawyer writes about difficult family relationships to perfection, and I love how she examines the things both said and unsaid that come between the characters. It is the women in this story that are by far the most interesting, and Sawyer's exploration of the relationships between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother and daughters, and female siblings is glorious. There are a lot of hard hitting scenes, particularly around loss and betrayal, but it is the small moments that actually have the most power. 

This book really worked its way under my skin, and I loved how Sawyer spins her threads in a way that keeps you on tenterhooks about where the characters will find themselves at the end of the day. There are times when this book has the atmosphere of a play, with the focus of a small ensemble cast moving across a stage, which I loved. For me, the ending was perfect, and I cried a bucket load of tears when the curtain came down. This is an emotive little stunner, and I cannot recommend it to you highly enough if you like beautifully written, multi-generational family dramas.  

This Family is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Coronet for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author: 

Kate was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK where she grew up in the countryside as the eldest of four siblings, after briefly living with her parents in Qatar and the Netherlands.

Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and producer before turning her hand to fiction. She has previously written for theatre and short-film.

Having lived in South London for the best part of two decades with brief stints in the Australia and the USA she recently returned to East Anglia to have her first child as a solo mother by choice.