It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon…’

This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that summer’s day in 1959. The whole family on the porch, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.

From that porch we spool back through the generations, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define the family. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century – four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their home…

I really really do like Anne Tyler's writing. Her characters are always so real that by the end of the book you feel you know them or they could be your own family. Nothing much ever happens in her novels but the daily lives of the characters totally draws you in. The Whitshanks are a very normal family, nobody is perfect, everyone has flaws - just like in any family. The children argue and squabble but they all pull together when they need to - again just like a real family. Every family character was slightly different, I really warmed to the mysterious 'problem' child Denny in the end who despite his flaws I thought was a really nice bloke just trying to find his way in life. I also liked the flashback to Juniors and Linnie May's life. A very well written book !

On it's way to dacejav as spotted on hee wishlist.

Happy reading

Oh, a surprise wish list RABCK! Thank you so much for your generosity!