French Braid

A new novel by the beloved classic writer. Warm, slightly ironic, insightful. It's once again a journey into the world of an ordinary family. From the 1950s, when a shiny red «Chevrolet» beeps outside the window, to our days, cocooned in a pandemic. In the summer of 1959, the 1&prrettes go on their first and last family vacation. They hardly leave the rented cottage, but in some sense, they have never been so far from each other. After that trip, everyone in the family subtly but surely begins to distance themselves from one another. Mercy struggles against the itch — she desperately wants to become an artist. But who will take care of the house and prepare lunches for her husband Robin? Her daughters, the balanced Alice and the boy-crazy Lily, are nothing alike and cannot find common ground. Their younger brother David, having gone away to study, almost severs ties with the family. Yet something connects them all, despite all the disagreements and misunderstandings, something elusive. And each member of this seemingly disjointed family influences the lives of the others. Because family is something deeper than just blood relations; family is like a French braid: you think you've escaped from your relatives, but it's impossible to free yourself from them; they are, just like the strands of an undone braid, still intertwined. Full of love for people, hope, joy mixed with bitterness, «French Braid» is a classic story by Anne Tyler. An impressively insightful novel about family abysses, about the impossibility of freeing oneself from those who love us.