This is Tyler at her most Tyler-ish.' – The Times (London) 'Lovely. ' French Braid proves once again that nobody can write about small family moments quite like she can.' – Real Simple 'Few writers are so widely loved and respected as the creator of 'family novels, ' a genre Tyler has perfected. In novel after novel, Tyler catches the mingled strains of affection and exasperation that tie a family together, the love that persists somewhere between laughing and singing.' –Ron Charles, Washington Post 'If Anne Tyler isn't the best writer in the world, who is?' –BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour 'Tyler's gift is that each story, each character is distinct, even as she builds on themes from one book to the next.' – NPR/ All Things Considered The rich melody of French Braid offers the comfort of a beloved hymn. For all its charm, French Braid is a quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.' –Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review (cover) 'Brilliant.

Instead, French Braid offers something subtler and finer, the long view on family. Five decades into her career, one gets the sense that Tyler is no longer quite so interested in the details. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts’ influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.įull of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close–yet how unknowable–every family is to itself.Īn NPR Best Book of the Year ' French Braid is a moving meditation on the passage of time. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family’s orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. “A quietly subversive novel, tackling fundamental assumptions about womanhood, motherhood and female aging.” –Jennifer Haigh, New York Times Book Review NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER – From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author–a funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family’s foibles, from a boyfriend with a red Chevy in the 1950s up to a longed-for reunion with a grandchild.

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