(Random House, $38.99)
The queen of British domestic dramas – otherwise known as Aga sagas – is back with another bestseller poking microscopic holes in the fabric of modern-day life.
In the upmarket London suburb of Highgate, Chrissie and her three daughters are devastated when the man of the house, Richie, dies suddenly. A devoted father to Tamsin, Dilly and Amy and a besotted partner of some 23 years to Chrissie, he had nevertheless failed to put a ring on her finger.
The wedding ring, in his case, is still being worn by his abandoned first wife Margaret, who remains in Newcastle, northern England, from whence Richie came and where his 37-year-old son Scott has stayed.
Chrissie goes from being a well-kept woman in a plushly padded world to a nervous wreck on the brink of being homeless, penniless and marble-less. Margaret, much older and dowdier, has very little sympathy but it’s really the children who are most scarred by Richie’s departure and his surprising last wishes for the final resting place of his treasured grand piano.
It’s testament to Joanna Trollope’s enormous skill that her characters come off as being so likeable, because if you took them out of her books and met them in the street, you might slap them for their silliness.
She is so incredibly adept at building a vacuum-packed world, however, that a teenager playing the flute for hours the night her father dies or a woman’s best friend giving advice no-one in real life would have the guts to fits in seamlessly.
ousic tinkles along as an underlying theme and I was surprised to see on her website (joannatrollope.com) that she has written a song to go with this book – although I was relieved to find out it was French singer Jason Kouchak doing the actual crooning. Not that I have any reason to think the woman can’t hold a tune herself but it’s her books I love, as do millions of others, and The other Family is a perfect example of why.
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