A ?New York Times Best book of 2009! Family Album is the story of a sprawling family with a dark secret at its heart. Having left Allersmead, the family estate, as a teenager, daAughter Gina returns for a visit with her new boyfriend. His curiosity about her mysterious past leads to reflection and revelations, and soon the entire family?six grown children, all with their own reasons for having left home?must confront the unspoken secret from their past.
PRAISE FOR PENELOPE LIVELY
?Her greatest gift is her ability to see beyond mere cultural ephemera and grasp the unchanging essence of life.?
? The Wall Street Journal on Consequences
?Her characters are beguiling, and her blend of romance and stinging social commentary is tonic.?
? Booklist (starred review) on Consequences
PRAISE FOR FAMILY ALBUM
?[U]nflaggingly compelling?. exceptionally well observed and gloriously enjoyable. Family Album manages to intrigue and delight, and to keep the reader captivated, racing along without obvious direction but with a very tight sense of purpose?. [O]ne of [Lively?s] most impressive works.?
? The Guardian
?[H]ugely enjoyable? a pleasure to read.?
? The Independent
?Lively skilfully mingles past and present, as she peels away the layers to uncover a family secret of which no one speaks. What seems at first a minor domestic drama evolves into a much darker picture, and time takes its inevitable toll as the parents grow old and infirm. Livelys astute skewering of family relations reverberates in the mind long afterwards.?
? The Daily Mail
?Lively succeeds brilliantly in getting a hold on the climate of family life. Slowly we absorb the details that get lost in the bluster and flurry until we are so drawn in, so tightly contained in the dynamics of this one, that the end, when it comes, is simply devastating.?
? The Times With its bountiful characters and exhaustive time traveling, Livelys vivisection of a nuclear family displays polished writing and fine character delineation."?
— Publishers Weekly
Author
Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra’s Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London. She was married to Jack Lively, who died in 1998.
