What Makes a Family

January 1, 2017
Family matriarch Sarah, or Mom Brodie as she's known, lies dying in the family home on Brodie Island. Abby has come home, along with her daughter, to be with her grandmother in her final days. Abby was always close to Mom Brodie, closer than she is to her own mother, and she dreads the inevitable arguments and resentments that will arise during her stay. The tableau is rounded out by Abby's younger sister, Celeste, a failed actress desperate for an inheritance that might revive her stalled career. As the women of the Brodie clan surround Mom Brodie, family dramas play out and secrets come to light. Narrated in turn by the five women at the heart of the novel, including Mom Brodie herself as she dreams of her life before Brodie Island, this novel is a heartbreaking look at family members who love, but don't necessarily understand, one another. Faulkner has created a quick read with an intriguing and well-developed cast of characters who will appeal to fans of Laura Moriarty and Luanne Rice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)