Family Album, Penelope Lively
Family Album, Penelope Lively
2 Rating(s)
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Family Album
A Novel

Author: Penelope Lively

Narrator: Josephine Bailey

Unabridged: 8 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/16/2009

Categories: Fiction, Psychological


Synopsis

All Alison ever wanted was a blissful childhood for her six children, with summers at the beach and birthday parties on the lawn at their family home. Together with Ingrid, the family au pair, she has worked hard to create a real "old-fashioned family life." But beneath its postcard sheen, the picture is clouded by a distant father, Alison's inexplicable emotional outbursts, and long-repressed secrets that no one dares mention. For years, Alison's adult children have protected her illusion of domestic perfection—but as each child confronts the effects of past choices on their current adult lives, it becomes evident that each must face the truth.

Penelope Lively's novels of history, memory, and character have earned her a loyal legion of fans. Like Ian McEwan's Atonement, this novel is a measured, thoughtful look at how events of the past, both small and large, seen and unseen, deeply inform character and the present. Quietly provocative and disturbing, Family Album is a highly nuanced work that showcases a master of her craft.

About Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively is the author of numerous award-winning novels, including the Man Booker Prize–winning Moon Tiger and The Photograph. Her writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a member of PEN, and a former chairman of the Society of Authors. She was awarded the CBE in 2002.


Reviews

Goodreads review by K on November 24, 2010

This is one of those cases where many things that normally annoy me in books were forgiven because I liked the writing. Not so much a story as a character sketch of a family and its members, Family Album reads like a series of snapshots. Distant, self-absorbed Charles is married to Allison, a mom on......more

Goodreads review by Bidisha on May 02, 2020

Rating 3.9/5 Atmospheric - the applicability of this word was proving to be difficult for me to grasp until I grabbed Dame Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger. It was resplendent with nostalgia and memory. Now, I am not aware if memory-fiction is a thing (yes, yes, I say this despite Julian Barnes' The Se......more