Family Drama - by Rebecca Fallon (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A vibrant debut and powerful meditation on family, motherhood, and the cost of holding on to your dreams, reminiscent of Ann Napolitano.

In New England, Susan Bliss is a young mother married to a professor.
In LA, Susan Byrne stars in a soap opera beloved coast to coast.
Decades after she's gone, her twins have no idea of their mother's fame. But the past can't stay hidden forever.

It's 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their mother's body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star: Susan Bliss.

Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. It's impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, does--hopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susan's two-paneled life: an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her life in New England as a wife and mother to young twins to the bright lights of Los Angeles, where she becomes the beloved star of a daytime soap.

In the present, Susan's twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her mother's torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her mother's old costar Orson Grey--now a renowned Hollywood star--she finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew.

Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.

Review Quotes

"FAMILY DRAMA is a magnificent debut. It has everything I love - gorgeous writing, complicated love affairs, a gripping storyline and so many pitch-perfect observations, I often had to read a sentence twice."--Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of BROKEN COUNTRY

"One of the most moving books I've read in a long time. I loved all of these characters - the complexities of life that stretch the bonds of family and marriage but ultimately are kept together with enduring love. It's extraordinary when a debut novel is this good about family drama!"--Julie Slavinsky, Warwick's

"Susan, an aspiring actor and Alcott, the more conservative professor are desperately in love. But how does that continue through time? Children? Careers? I cried for the lost childhoods, the struggle to find a middle ground. Please read this so we can talk."--Valerie Koehler, Blue Willow Books

"FAMILY DRAMA is a story of sibling love, loss, and the cost of following your dreams. With a keen sense of place, robust characters, and all the drama that the title promises, this novel is a must-add for book club calendars."--Mary Webber O'Malley, Skylark Books

About the Author

Rebecca Fallon is a New England-born Londoner and a graduate of Williams College and the University of Oxford. Family Drama is her debut novel.