15 highly recommended novels from my favorite genre, the family drama

This compulsively readable literary mystery begins when a father vanishes in a D.C. area park—and the only witness to his disappearance is his 14-year-old autistic son, who doesn’t speak and thus lacks the means to verbally communicate with his family about what happened. What begins as a missing persons case quickly develops into an even more ominous investigation. First-person narrator Mia, a college student at home in 2020 due to the pandemic, takes us deep inside the workings of her Korean-American family as she relays all that unfolds during the bewildering three days following her father’s disappearance. Kim incorporates elements of music, numerology, language therapy, and more into this riveting blend of family saga and ticking-clock procedural thriller. This was one of my favorite books of 2023. More info →

I find myself recommending Frankel’s latest to wildly disparate readers: appreciators of humor and wit, family novel devotees, theater kids. The story begins with an actress named India who becomes the target of a media firestorm after criticizing her new movie in the press. Her precocious ten-year-old twins, recognizing their mother is living a PR nightmare, take it upon themselves to seek help from a person uniquely positioned to do so: a family member their mother doesn’t know they know about, and whom they’ve never met. Alternating between the present day media fracas and India’s early days as an actress, and moving between LA, Seattle, and NYC, Frankel firmly roots her tale in the world of theater and film, exploring the many forms family can take and the limits of love. This was a 2024 Spring Book Preview spotlight selection, thanks in no small part to its unforgettable scenes, bold plot choices, Shakespeare and musical theater references, and at least one gasp-out-loud moment. More info →

Khong’s intimate second novel is a profound meditation on race, class, identity, and the complexity of family. The multigenerational epic almost reads like three connected novellas, as we meet three different generations of the Chen family in 1999 NYC, 2021 PNW and New England, and 2030 San Francisco (with many memories of 1960s China). This novel poses big questions, while satisfyingly withholding pat answers: what makes us who we are? What is family? How can we justify keeping secrets from those we love? And what does it mean to be a “real” American? More info →

This debut portraying love and redemption over four generations of a Texas family captured me from the opening scene, when twenty-something Lillian is reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in the library and is interrupted by Ryan, the man who becomes the love of her life. They are perfect for one another. But Lillian soon learns that the more you love someone, the more they can break your heart. Her new husband desperately wants them to have a baby, not knowing she already has a son. And she knows Ryan is a child of addiction, but never dreams he will soon be swallowed by it himself. Devastating and beautiful: get your Kleenex ready. More info →

Set in 1980s Atlanta, this has one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist." Jones writes about the link between two African-American half sisters, one legitimate and one secret, only one of whom knows the other exists. That is, until the secret of their father's second marriage starts to force its way into the open. Rather than writing back-and-forth between two perspectives, the reader encounters almost all of one sister's point of view in the first half, followed by the other's. The result is an absorbing coming-of-age narrative wrapped in a complicated family novel. (This was the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club November 2020 selection.) More info →

This National Book Award nominee opens with a mystery: in 1970s Japan, Louisa and her father Serk go for a walk by the shore at dusk, flashlight in hand. The two don’t return as expected. Hours later, searchers find Louisa, unconscious in the water, but her father is missing. Choi subsequently crosses generations and continents as she traces what happened in the decades before and after his disappearance, exploring the estrangements and sorrows of two families, how geopolitics impacts ordinary citizens, and (playing with that flashlight metaphor) how our limited understanding of the people we love causes us pain. An absorbing and satisfyingly complex epic. More info →

This 2013 novel is set during the record-setting 1976 London heatwave during which the patriarch of an Irish family clears out his bank account and disappears, leaving his family to puzzle out where he went, and why. In the aftermath, the three adult children respond to their mother's plea for help and descend on their parents' home for the first time in ages. Soon the three are working (and squabbling) together as they try to determine what might have happened to their father. As the search progresses, secrets from the parents' marriage and the adult children's struggles and insecurities are revealed. The story takes us from London to Ireland and New York City as we wait to see what happened to the father, and what will happen next in each character's life. I read this ages ago and still think about these characters often; the audiobook is particularly lovely as voiced by John Lee, with his lilting Irish accent. More info →

At long last, Flournoy follows up her 2015 debut, the National Book Award finalist The Turner House, with this coming-into-middle-age novel about four Black women navigating the tumultuous years from their twenties to their forties in New York and L.A, from 2008 to 2027. Flournoy describes herself to be fascinated by group dynamics, and here she portrays the complex and ever-shifting friendship between these four friends and chosen sisters as they make their way through the “wilderness”—the unclear path each woman must navigate as she finds her way in work, love, and life. Read this 2025 Fall Book Preview spotlight title for the expertly drawn character development and the nuanced exploration of gender expectations, romantic entanglements, class concerns, caregiving, and the evolving dynamics of city life. More info →

Identical twins Desiree and Stella grew up in the 1950s in a town so small it doesn't appear on maps. They're closer than close, so Desiree is shocked when Stella vanishes one night after deciding to sacrifice her past—and her relationship with her family—in order to marry a white man, who doesn't know she's Black. Desiree never expects to see her sister again. The twins grow up, make lives for themselves, and raise daughters—and it's those daughters who bring the sisters together again. It's a reunion Stella both longs for and fears, because she can't reveal the truth without admitting her whole life is a lie. Bennett expertly weaves themes of family, race, identity, and belonging into one juicy, unputdownable novel spanning five turbulent decades. More info →

I so appreciated this striking and oh-so-discussable debut novel. After Hazel Blum’s professor father accepts a tenured position at a college in small town Maine, the family relocates from Brooklyn and spends the summer adjusting to their new community. Everything goes well until the first day of Hazel’s senior year when the unthinkable happens: the beloved high school principal propositions her and she turns him down. He, of course, denies her claim and tries to turn it back on her—with long-lasting impacts that domino through the whole town, and beyond. Told through each family member’s point of view, Gross explores identity, belonging, and sexual harassment in this arresting coming-of-age tale. More info →

The setting of this short and breathtaking novel about a woman raising teenage boys under arduous circumstances in a small, rocky Maine town is largely inspired by the fishing village near Conley's childhood home. When her husband is confined to a Nova Scotia hospital after a terrible fishing accident, a mother is left to parent her teenage boys—"the wolves"—alone. But things have been hard for a while now: in this insular fishing community, the fish aren't biting like they once did. Money is perpetually tight. Not long before, the family was dealt a terrible blow, and one son is still wracked by grief. And even absent an immediate crisis, parenting teenagers is grueling. I did not want to put this down, although I paused many times along the way to text my fellow parents of teenage boys. I loved the evocative setting and bracing portrayal of a family on the brink. More info →

When this story about four sisters begins, we learn Nicky unexpectedly died a year ago. She was the sister who held all of them together and Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky haven’t known how to connect without her. Their parents are ready to sell the NYC apartment where their daughter lived and died, leading to the sisters returning home to stop the sale. Mellors says she took inspiration from the movie The Royal Tenenbaums, where each family member was extraordinary in their own way but they couldn’t gel as a family unit. We see characters acting in self-destructive ways but we also see them finding their way to a better, more solid place with themselves and with each other. I appreciated how Mellors examines addiction, sobriety, and ambition in a way that feels true to life. More info →

I was entranced by Perrin’s English language debut from the lyrical and utterly surprising opening passage, in which narrator Violette grounds us in her work as a cemetery caretaker. She sees her setting not as a sinister place but as a garden of souls where she gently tends the dead and those who come to pay them tribute. The achingly sad and touching story unspools over more than twenty years, yet always felt immediate, even urgent, mixing love and betrayal, drama and resilience, friendship and loss, drama and resilience, even poetry to great effect. Translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle. More info →

Lange became an auto-read author for me with her compelling debut. Five years ago, Sunday Brennan left her small New York hometown, abandoning her parents, three brothers, and devoted fiancé with no explanation. In the present, after a wildly uncharacteristic episode of binge drinking lands her in the hospital, her brother convinces her to come home for a little while to recuperate and help with the Irish American family's struggling bar. Not everyone is thrilled to see the prodigal daughter, and her reappearance eventually causes all kinds of long-held family secrets to finally come pouring out. I loved this for its portrayal of complex family dynamics (especially among the four siblings), its sweet tale of young love, the ever-interesting setting of the bar, and its hopeful—but not tidy—resolution. More info →

I'm a longtime Amy Poeppel fan; we've even enjoyed chatting with her in MMD Book Club about reading and writing funny books. She excels at writing big-hearted multigenerational family fiction. This focuses on an endearingly eccentric family that lives in a Greenwich Village brownstone and the titular neighborhood bar that operates in the basement. I googled and mapped my way through this book and so enjoyed zooming in for visuals on the book's very real locations. If you enjoyed Musical Chairs, this is very much in the same vein: delightfully chaotic with an absolutely soaring ending. More info →