Favorite and Recommended Family Sagas

Photo Credit: Sharon McCutcheon via Unsplash

Earlier this week, despite the fact that my to-be-read list is truly out of control, I asked friends on social media to recommend their favorite family sagas. I can’t get The Most Fun We Ever Had, a recent read, out of my head so I’m thinking another similar read might be in order.

As I was thinking about my favorite family sagas, I realized something. There are tons of multigenerational family sagas out there that I love. But… what I am feeling really drawn to right now are those stories that focus on one generation- parents and their kids over time. As we pass through a full year in quarantine, I suppose this should’t come as a surprise. Perhaps to our teenangers’ chagrin, our small family of four, has been at the forefront in a way it really hasn’t been since the girls were babies. In some ways I am really sad about this. These are the years in which the girls should be separating, spending more and more time away from the nest and I understand how unfair this year has been for them. In some ways though, I am so grateful for what has been bonus time with them. Time to eat dinner together, to watch shows together, to sit downstairs and listen to the girls laugh together upstairs.

So as is often the case, the books I am drawn to right now are reflective of the themes that feel important in my life one of which is family.

Below is the list that has grown from all of your amazing recommendations. I have separated the list into books I have read and loved and books that I have added to my own list. Please feel free to keep adding- my to be read list can never be too long!

Family Sagas I Have Read & Loved

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

The Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

Tell the Wolves I Am Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Family Sagas I Can’t Wait to Read

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

The World According to Garp & Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

Anything by Marilynne Robinson