“You don’t choose your family,” Desmond Tutu famously said. “They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” But sometimes, there turns out to be more to our families than we know: Connections are hidden, bonds are broken, secrets slip from one generation to the next.
In my novel, A Million Reasons Why (St. Martin’s Press), two strangers become linked by a mail-in DNA test. It begins with an answered prayer — that is, for one half-sister. For the other, it will dismantle everything she knows to be true. But as they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, the roles will reverse in ways no one could have foreseen. (Read the Tall Poppy review here.)
Whether family ties are being buried or unearthed, one thing is certain: The result is fertile ground for rich, layered storytelling. Look no further than this roundup of other highly recommended reads about new family discoveries.
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
This novel takes a similar surprise to the one in A Million Reasons Why in a totally different direction: When Paige Meyer is notified her DNA matches a biological father who isn’t the man who raised her, she thinks there must be some mistake. As dual timelines reveal her mother’s past choices, Paige faces a tough decision of her own — about family, identity and forgiveness. (Read Jen Blankfein’s review here.)
Three Words for Goodbye by Heather Webb & Hazel Gaynor
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
Under the Southern Sky by Kristy Woodson Harvey
This heartfelt bestselling memoir is part a look at the ethics behind now-dated fertility practices and now-commonplace DNA testing, and part intimate journey through one woman’s attempt to redefine her identity after a family secret comes to light. (Read BookTrib’s review here.)
The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman
Three Words for Goodbye by Heather Webb & Hazel Gaynor
In this historical novel, two sisters who mix about as well as oil and water set off across the Atlantic to delve into their grandmother’s past — reconciling their own strained relationship as they come face to face with people who were key parts of their unknown family history. (Read the Tall Poppy review here.)
When a grieving widower discovers his late wife’s frozen embryos have been labeled “abandoned” in storage, he’s faced with an impossible choice in this moving novel that confronts what it really takes to honor the people we’ve loved and lost. (Read the Tall Poppy review here.)
In this novel, family lore has it that the Fontanas are cursed: Second-born daughters are destined not to find love. But when three second-born Fontana women set out to change their fate once and for all, they uncover more than they bargained for between their Brooklyn home and their Italian homeland. (Read BookTrib’s review here.)
The People We Keep by This gorgeous novel stretches our definition of family beyond the wise words of Desmond Tutu above. When a teenage singer-songwriter can no longer tolerate the neglectful, impoverished circumstances she’s been born into, she sets out with her guitar and finds that, with acceptance and love, our closest friends really can become surrogate family when we need it most.
