Turning for Home by Barney Norris

Turning for Home

Barney Norris

A large family get-together is always a good set piece for exposing dysfunctional family dynamics, as is the case here, with friends, relatives and offspring gathering to celebrate a grandfather's 80th birthday. In a deceptively low key build up of unexpected revelations I found the fraught mother and daughter relationship particularly poignant. A lyrical and thought-provoking piece of literary fiction.

Extract
There ought to be truth and reconciliation in every stratum of the lives people live. All that laying out of things shouldn't be only reserved for the public sphere, the fractures in families are just as complex, just as terrible.
Parallels
  • The Gathering by Anne Enright
  • Upstate by James Wood