As reviewed on The Cafe, TV3!
Joanna Trollope is a bestselling English writer who was appointed an OBE in 1996. Her latest novel, Mum & Dad is her 22nd novel, and it’s written with her trademark humour and warmth.
Twenty-five years ago, Gus and Monica left England to set up a vineyard in Spain. They have worked hard to build a successful business from the ground up, although Monica misses her grown up children who have their own lives back in England. But then Gus suffers a stroke, and the family comes together to support each other through this crisis. But Gus’s stroke is not the only problem.
Gus has bullied Monica for years, and she dreads him coming back to the vineyard and being extra grumpy when restricted from driving or working like he used to.
Oldest son Sebastian is feeling like a loose wheel in his relationship with his wife and children, and he fears his wife Anna doesn’t want to be with him anymore. It doesn’t help that she has never got on with his mother.
The middle child, Kate, is a successful solicitor in London, but she distracted by problems with her one of her three teenage daughters.
The youngest child, Jake, wants to move to Spain permanently to help his mother with the vineyard, but his new wife Bella is very much against the idea.
As long-simmering resentments rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, can the family ties prove strong enough to keep them together?
Mum & Dad is a fabulous read, one that explores the complexities of what it is to be a family.
Reviewer: Karen McMillan
Macmillan Publishers
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