A Family Daughter - Hardcover

'LIARS AND SAINTS works on its own as a succinct, intricately plotted four-generational story. The new book is better than the first, but it's hard to separate them. Ms. Meloy's reflections on truth and fiction are best appreciated when the two novels collide... A FAMILY DAUGHTER roams engrossingly from California to Paris to Buenos Aires in ways that make it a big book as well as a swift, slender, graceful one. And if the speed and gloss of Ms. Meloy's first novel suggested that she might be better suited to short stories, this new book has the deep ramifications of more ambitious fiction.' -- New York Times 'Both compassionate and gripping, A FAMILY DAUGHTER is a wonderful piece of fiction' -- Books Quarterly (Waterstone's) Book of the month: ' You can't help but be caught up by Meloy's enthralling storytelling which alternates between dramatic narrative swoops and tiny moments of emotional acuity. A truly original piece of work, A FAMILY DAUGHTER is a novel which establishes Meloy as a writer with an imaginative territory as distinctive and finely worked as that of Anne Tyler' -- Marie Claire 20060401 'Elegantly, without detouring into the jokey feedback of metafiction, A FAMILY DAUGHTER reveals how, even in broken families, the idea of upward mobility and the smoothing out mistakes remains hard to shake' -- John Freeman - Scotsman 20060401 'A FAMILY DAUGHTER is the delinquent offspring of Liars and Saints, and deserves similar success' -- Daily Mail 20060401 'This is a deliciously duplicitous book, a darkly perceptive examination of American mores disguised as a light family romance.' -- Sunday Telegraph (Seven) 20060401 'Irresistible... By turns, funny, sad, shocking and heart-warming, this is a gem.' -- Sainsbury's Magazine 20060401 'A sunny slice of Californian Gothic' -- The Independent 20060401 'The Gothic curlicues of Meloy's narrative are tempered by the generosity of her style ... and by the gratefulness of her characterisation' -- Jane Shilling, The Times 20060401 'Meloy's prose and plotting are clear and surefooted ... Meloy can capture a character in a few swift lines' -- Evening Standard 20060401 'Both compassionate and gripping A FAMILY DAUGHTER is a wonderful piece of fiction' -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly 20060401 'Elegantly, without detouring into the jokey feedback of metafiction, A Family Daughter reveals how, even in broken families, the idea of upward mobility and the smoothing out mistakes remains hard to shake' -- Scotsman 20060401 'What she does best ... is to use all her tolerant intelligence to report on the human condition' -- Penny Perrick, Sunday Times 20060401 'Sensational plot developments' -- Tina Jackson, The Metro 20060401 '[Meloy] ... writes wonderfully well, with an efficiency so lithe it's like watching an athlete' -- Guardian 20060401 'A tale worthy of the Greeks ... While there is plenty of feeling its pages, none of it crystallises into sentimentality ... spare, sturdy prose' -- Observer 20060401 'Quiet, unastonished precision ... an impressive achievement' -- Philip Roth 20060401 'A great weekend read' -- Vogue 20060401 'Elegantly written' -- The Gold Coast Bulletin 20060401

Brilliantly entertaining, A Family Daughter might also be the most insightful novel about families and love that you will read this year. It's 1979, and seven-year-old Abby, the youngest member of the close-knit Santerre family, is trapped indoors with the chicken pox during a heat wave. The events set in motion that summer will span decades and continents and change the Santerres forever. A rich, full novel about passion and desire, fear and betrayal, A Family Daughter illuminates both the joys and complications of contemporary life, and the relationship between truth and fiction.