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by Eleanor Brown
The New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters returns with a striking and intimate new novel about three very different adoptive mothers who face the impossible question: What makes a family?
Though they look like any other family, they aren't one—not quite. They are three sets of parents who find themselves intertwined after adopting four biological siblings, having committed to keeping the children as connected as possible.
At the heart of the family, the adoptive mothers grapple to define themselves and their new roles. Tabitha, who adopted the twins, crowns herself planner of the group, responsible for endless playdates and holidays, determined to create a perfect happy family. Quiet and steady Ginger, single mother to the eldest daughter, is wary of the way these complicated not-fully-family relationships test her long held boundaries. And Elizabeth, still reeling from rounds of failed IVF, is terrified that her unhappiness after adopting a newborn means she was not meant to be a mother at all.
As they set out on their first family vacation, all three are pushed into uncomfortably close quarters. And when they receive a call from their children's birth mother announcing she is pregnant again, the delicate bonds the women are struggling to form threaten to collapse as they each must consider how a family is found and formed.
"Rewarding…Brown has a sure hand in portraying the adoptive women; their smart, lively dialogue sparks as the characters try to define the boundaries of a family. Overall, Brown entertains with her colorful cast and engaging conceit." —Publishers Weekly
"Told in the alternating perspectives of the three adoptive mothers and interspersed with written adoption applications from eager parents-to-be, the novel moves thoughtfully, precisely, and sometimes humorously through the psyches of the parents, pushing the readers into the quick-paced, perfectly detailed story while never forgetting the looming questions of family and belonging. A prismatic story of family, adoption, and how the people we choose to keep close shape who we are." —Kirkus Reviews
"Brown pulls no punches as she explores adoption and the experience of parenting in this intensely emotional novel, thought-provoking to the last page." —Library Journal
"Brown's tenderness toward these women, as well as the fathers, their children and the birth mother and father, draws readers toward empathy as well, as we feel our way into the complexities and nuances of the characters' seemingly impossible choices." —BookPage
"Brown's exploration of what makes a family creates an engrossing read." —Booklist
"Insightful...[Brown's] characters wrestle convincingly and compassionately with the challenges of their particular experience....Thoughtful, compelling and ultimately hopeful, Any Other Family asks hard and necessary questions about adoption, privilege and what truly makes a family." —Shelf Awareness
"Funny, wise, heartbreaking, and heart-mending, Any Other Family explores what it means to be a family, in all its messy complication. Emotionally complex, immensely readable, and deeply affecting." —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and The Exiles
This information about Any Other Family was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Eleanor Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Weird Sisters and The Light of Paris, and the editor of the anthology A Paris All Your Own. An adoptive mother herself, Eleanor lives with her family in Colorado.
My Darling Boy by John Dufresne
The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.
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