A major new novel from the beloved prize-winning author -- a freshly observed funny joyful brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one family's foibles from the 1950s right up to our pandemic present The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever venture far from home but in some ways they have never been further apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter which means less time keeping house for her husband Robin. Their teenage daughters steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily could not have less in common. Their youngest David is already intent on escaping his family's orbit for reasons none of them understands. Yet as these lives advance across decades the Garretts' influence on one another ripples unmistakably through each generation. Full of heartbreak and hilarity French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring uncannily insightful novel bursting with warmth and humour that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us and how close -- yet how unknowable -- every family is to itself.
