By Kent Haruf

From the unsettled lives of a small-town teacher struggling to raise two boys alone in the face of their mother's retreat from life, a pregnant teenage girl with nowhere to go, and two elderly bachelor farmers emerges a new vision of life and family as their diverse destinies intertwine.

By Kyong-sook Shin

Follows the efforts of a family to find the mother who went missing from Seoul Station and their sobering realizations when they recall memories that suggest she may not have been happy.

By Galt Niederhoffer
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Starting over after moving to Portland, Maine, a newly blended family forged by two seemingly happy career people becomes subject to small omissions and a series of denials that escalate in menacing ways.

By Dorothea Benton Frank
Series Lowcountry Tales

In South Carolina, three generations of a family share a memorable summer on Sullivan's Island.

By Isabel Allende

Lacking all memory of the first five years of her life because of a brutal trauma, Aurora del Valle is raised by her regal grandmother Paulina and eventually seeks to confront the mystery of her past

By Sarah Blake
Recommended By Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services

“It is 1940. While war rages in Europe, President Roosevelt promises he won't send American boys to fight. In the small Cape Cod town of Franklin, postmistress Iris James firmly believes that her job is to deliver and keep people's secrets… The Postmistress is a tale of lost innocence (From the Publisher).”

By Pat Conroy
Recommended By John Shea, Library Page

Interweaves the events of Tom Wingo's summer in New York and his relationship to Susan Lowenstein, his sister Savannah's beautiful psychiatrist and the complex history of the South Carolinian Wingo family, from World War II, through Vietnam.

By Edward Rutherfurd
Series The Dublin Saga

A fictional account of the history of Ireland recreates such events as the mission of Saint Patrick, the Viking invasion, and the trickery of Henry II that led to England's establishment in Ireland.

By Ratika Kapur

Committed to doing her part in realizing the new Indian dream for her family by working as a receptionist in Delhi and taking care of the home, while her husband works in Dubai, Mrs. Sharma's conversation with a stranger may change everything. Genres: Cultural Fiction; Asian Fiction; Indian Fiction; Domestic Fiction; Literary Fiction; Romance/Love Stories

By Jonathan Dee

Becoming wealthier and more socially connected throughout the course of their marriage, Adam and Cynthia Morey also find themselves increasingly subject to the temptations of excess and risky behavior while their growing children struggle with their own privilege-based challenges.

By Damon Galgut
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life's unfulfilled promises; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt. Reunited by four funerals over three decades, the dwindling family reflects the atmosphere of its country an atmosphere of resentment, renewal, and ultimately hope.

By Jane Green

The personal lives of sisters Callie and Steff, their friend, and their divorced parents are irrevocably changed throughout the course of an extraordinary summer in Maine that forces them to reevaluate their relationships and roles.

By Jennifer Chiaverini
Series Elm Creek Quilts

For the Elm Creek Quilters, the day after Thanksgiving marks the start of the quilting season, a time to gather at Elm Creek Manor and spend the day stitching holiday gifts for loved ones. On this quilter's holiday, Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom has invited her friends to continue an old family tradition of sewing quilt blocks representing their thankfulness and gratitude. As each quilter explains the significance of her carefully chosen block, stories of love and longing for family and friends emerge.

By John Updike
Series Rabbit Angstrom Novels
Recommended By Donna Burger, Readers' Services Librarian

The novel depicts three months in the life of a 26-year-old former high school basketball player named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom who is trapped in a loveless marriage and a boring sales job, and his attempts to escape the constraints of his life.

By Matt Haig
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

The Radleys are vampires, but they confront many of the same challenges any human family faces––a husband pining for his youthful exploits, a wife dwelling on her first "love," and children grasping for their place in the family and the world.

By Danny Scheinmann

Waking up in a hospital to learn that his girlfriend has died, grief stricken Leo discovers a surprising secret.

By Claire Cook

Frustrated by domesticity, Beth a wife and mother of three, finds a secret way to make her life exciting.

By Edward Rutherfurd
Series The Dublin Saga

Once again Rutherfurd takes us inside the process of history by tracing the lives of several Dublin families from all strata of society, Protestant and Catholic, rich and poor, conniving and heroic.

By Ayelet Waldman
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

“Two families living on the Maine coast find their way through grief together after a tragic accident takes the lives of a young, newly-married couple, which results in a broken marriage, a bonding between bereaved siblings, and healing in the form of an adopted girl’s prodigious violin talent (From the Publisher).”

By Colleen Hoover
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of It Ends With Us comes a novel about family, first love, grief and betrayal that will touch the hearts of both mothers and daughters.

By Robert Goolrick
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

“Robert Goolrick's intoxicating debut novel delivers a classic tale of suspenseful seduction, set in a world that seems to have gone temporarily off its axis (From the Publisher).”

By Kazuo Ishiguro

Stevens, an elderly butler, hopes to rise to the top of his profession, and he remains stoic and unemotional at his father's death and neglects the opportunity to pursue a relationship with a former housekeeper.

By Rita Ciresi
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

After marrying the man of her dreams, Lisa is confronted with the realities of marriage and motherhood as she deals with her husband’s long office hours, a messy and ailing child, and her spouse’s scorn of her dream of becoming a writer.

By Laura Moriarty

When her daughter accidentally hits and kills another high school girl with the family's car, Leigh, a troubled mother, is forced to confront her relationship with her daughter, her resentment toward her husband (who understands the daughter better) and her long-buried feelings towards her own neglectful mother.

By Bethany Chase

After her world is turned upside down by the discovery that her husband is having an affair with a man, Caroline Hammond must reimagine her life without the relationship that had defined it since high school. Genres: Relationships; Men/Women Relationships; Women’s Relationships *Domestic Fiction?*

By Ron Carlson

Returning after a successful 30-year career as a novelist, Jimmy returns terminally ill to his 1999 hometown in Wyoming and reconnects with three former bandmates from his high-school years including two who never left the town and a Denver lawyer who has returned to sell his parents' home.

By Dan Walsh
Recommended By Marie McLaughlin, Head of Circulation

“Aaron Miller, once appreciated for his heroics in battle, now works in obscurity as a handyman, but discovers that the love that he lost can be restored (From the Publisher).”

By Richard Yates
Recommended By Kelly Ramos, Children's Librarian

“It’s hard to think that there’s too much wrong with April and Frank Wheeler over and above what has been tagged the disenchantment syndrome of the average young married couple in the suburbs… For April’s discontent is a real emotional destitution, and this, to Yates’ great credit, is only imperceptibly apparent (Kirkus Reviews).”

Became the movie: Revolutionary Road.

By Maryann McFadden
Recommended By Susan L., Library Page

"The Richest Season is a stunning debut about three very different people, each changing their lives when such transformations are usually long over. It will resonate with any woman who's ever fantasized about leaving home to find herself (From the Publisher)."

By Nora Roberts
Series Chespeake Bay Saga
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Ethan Quinn works to make the family's Chesapeake Bay boatbuilding business a success while struggling despite his dark and painful past to find happiness with the woman whom he has always loved.

By Robert Morgan

Seen through the eyes of the youngest daughter, Annie, the Richards family faces triumph and hardships during the Great Depression and World War II.

By Beck Dorey-Stein
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

When a developer tries to cash in on Sea Point, three friends Kate, Miles and Ziggy must wade through — and overcome — the white lies and long-buried secrets that threaten to erode the bonds between them as well as the landscape of the beachside community they call home.

By Rosanna Chiofalo
Recommended By Lisa C., Library Clerk

When food writer Claudia tries to learn the truth behind a delicious cake found in an Italian convent, the local nun relates to her a story of a young woman who, after a terrible ordeal, learned the art of pastry and fell in love with an apprentice.

By Leila Meacham

Having not married in spite of their true feelings, cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick struggle with deceit, secrets, and tragedies that challenge their children and grandchildren in their small east Texas community.

By Ann Patchett
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted sons' career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities.

By Naomi Ragen
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian

"Ragen again examines the lives of ultra–orthodox Jews and the severe consequences that can befall even the most faithful when they take a serious, albeit human misstep (From Publishers Weekly)."

By J. Courtney Sullivan
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Moving from Ireland to America upon coming of age, a shy and responsible older sister and a gregarious young sister who thrives in their new Boston home endure the long-term repercussions of a fateful decision when the younger sister becomes pregnant.

By Dorothea Benton Frank
Recommended By Marie McLaughlin, Head of Circulation

Reconnecting on one of Charleston's most beautiful barrier islands, a pair of former sweethearts rediscover their feelings for one another while their jealous spouses pursue an unexpected attraction of their own over more than twenty years.

By Amanda Eyre Ward

Ward, Amanda Eyre-The Same Sky* A childless woman looking to adopt crosses paths with a 13-year-old Honduran girl who has embarked on a dangerous journey into Texas with her brother.

By Chris Bohjalian
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Presents the parallel stories of a young woman who falls in love with an Armenian soldier while aiding victims of the Armenian genocide in the early twentieth century, and a young woman who researches her Armenian heritage and discovers a terrible family secret.

By Tatiana de Rosnay
Recommended By Susan L., Library Page

American Journalist Julia Jarmond researches the brutal 1942 Nazi roundup in Paris and stumbles upon a connection between her family and one of the victims, which compels Julia to learn more about the girl's life.

By Edward Rutherford

Covering the entire course of English history, this epic follows five families that mirror the social and political forces that have shaped Britain – the Wilsons, the Masons, the Porteuses, the Shockleys, and the Godfreys.

By Beth Hoffman
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

For years, 12–year–old CeeCee Honeycutt has been the caretaker of her psychotic mother, Camille–the tiara–toting, lipstick–smeared laughingstock of an entire town. But when Camille is hit by a truck and killed, CeeCee is left to fend for herself.

By Lynne Griffin
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

Balancing her roles as a wife and mother with the responsibility of caring for a parent who is recovering from a stroke, Laura reads love letters exchanged by her parents during the 1950s and tumultuous Vietnam War period, a correspondence that reveals unexpected truths.

By Nora Roberts
Series Chesapeake Bay Saga
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Cameron, a champion boat racer, returns home to the Maryland shore at the behest of his dying father to care for Seth, a troubled young boy.

By Joanna Trollope

Distraught when her youngest son, twenty-two-year-old Ben, plans to leave home, Edie, an actress, and her theatrical agent husband, Russell, are faced with an empty nest for the first time, until their older son Matthew, upset about earning less than his successful girlfriend, and daughter Rosa, wrestling with debt and a failed love affair, plan to move back in.

By Susan Rivers
With Jean Simpson, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, March 27, 2018. 1:30 PM.

Follows the efforts of Civil War veteran Major Gryffth Hockaday to discern the truth about his teen bride, who during the two years he was at war was convicted and imprisoned for allegedly having a baby in his absence and killing it.

By Barbara Delinsky
Recommended By Susan L., Library Page

“Deborah Monroe and her daughter, Grace, are driving home from a party when their car hits a man running in the dark. Grace was at the wheel, but Deborah sends her home before the police arrive, determined to shoulder the blame for the accident… Once again, Delinsky has delivered a riveting, superbly crafted family story (From the Publisher).”

By Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Recommended By Kalpana Mehta, Reference Librarian

“Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and the child that binds both of their destinies, Secret Daughter poignantly explores the emotional terrain of motherhood, loss, identity, and love, as witnessed through the lives of two families one Indian, one American and the child that indelibly connects them (From the Publisher).”

By Lola Shoneyin

“Baba Segi's fourth wife, the young, college-educated Bolanle, sends his household into turmoil, causing his other three wives to become jealous and resentful and to plot her downfall (From the Publisher).”