4 Uplifting Novels About Family Drama

Nothing says complicated like family dynamics. As a novelist who writes multiple point-of-view family stories, I know one thing for certain: Nobody is immune from family drama. 

(10 Tips for Writing a Family Drama.)

Whether your family is small and spread out across the globe or you live in the same town as your zillion aunts and cousins, you have dealt with drama of the familial variety. I love writing stories about families because the issues are so universal. Many of the emotional strains and interpersonal hiccups families endure transcend religion, race, and socioeconomic class. 

Yet despite the angst we feel when we’re around our families—those old rivalries resurface, our insecurities rage—we know it’s our family we can depend on the most when times get tough. These novels are all excellent family stories filled with humor, warmth, and plenty of juicy drama.

The Windfall, by Diksha Basu

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You can take the family out of East Delhi but you can’t take the East Delhi out of the family. That’s one lesson I learned reading this hilarious, heart-warming story about the Jha family, who—after the titular windfall—move from a modest apartment complex in a working class area across town to a fancy shmancy neighborhood where fitting in isn’t just about having a fat bank account. This book actually made me LOL—how often does that happen?—while also contemplating more serious issues relating to personal fulfillment and social class warfare. It was also a totally universal story—drop the Jhas in the United States and the same issues would arise.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple

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The quirkiest book on the list, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is as original as they come. On its face a satirical tale about an upper-class family clashing with uptight neighbors and private school families in cushy Seattle, Bernadette at its heart is about a mother and daughter finding each other, both literally and figuratively. Bernadette Fox is brilliant and loony, a once widely-revered architect now miserable in the suburbs surrounded by tech honchos and irritating neighbors. After her daughter Bee earns a family trip to Antarctica, Bernadette disappears, and Bee is left trying to understand how her mother could have abandoned her. Part mystery, part family saga, this book will make you appreciate the depths of forgiveness when it comes to those we love most and how the real story is never quite what we imagined it to be.

The Sweet Spot, by Amy Poeppel

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I thought my books had a lot of characters, but Poeppel’s got me beat by a mile. That said, keeping track of the friends, family, and neighbors that populate The Sweet Spot was no issue thanks to each well-defined character having a unique personality and set of personal circumstances. Set in the charming West Village, so richly detailed it’s practically another cast member, the story captures—with a finely-tuned wit and pitch-perfect dialogue—the domino effect of one innocent mistake on a group of interconnected people. Put a jilted wife, an exhausted working mother, a ruined-by-TikTok Millennial, a celebrity interior designer, and a newborn baby into a cauldron and what do you get? A twisty-turny, feel-good family drama.

The Guncle, by Steven Rowley

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I love this story so much because it celebrates the great love that can exist between aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews, a relationship not mined nearly enough in fiction in my opinion. When Patrick, technically GUP, technically for Gay Uncle Patrick, is forced to care for his niece and nephew for an entire summer in tony and decidedly not child-friendly Palm Springs, both uncle and children rise to the occasion with grace, humor, and precious missteps. Patrick is hesitant at first to take on the role of surrogate father, and the kids are hardly thrilled with the arrangement either, but as often is the case with family, the biological love between them is all they need to thrive as a unit. 

And one more!

Check out my latest family dramedy, Jackpot Summer, which hits shelves June 11. Head over to the Jersey Shore to discover what happens to the Jacobson family when three of four of the adult siblings win a life-changing Powerball.

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