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51 Sweeping Family Sagas to Put Yours in Perspective
Family troubles got you down? Don’t worry, that’s what the holidays are designed for. Everybody has family drama this time of year. It’s tradition!
One of the best ways of surviving the season, we’ve found, is to bury your head in other people’s issues. As such, we’ve rounded up 51 multigenerational family sagas that have proved popular among Goodreads regulars. As it happens, there has been a significant wave of such novels this year, including Tara M. Stringfellow’s Memphis, Melissa Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring, and Isabel Allende’s Violeta. We’ve folded in some classics, too: The Joy Luck Club, The Thorn Birds, East of Eden.
Scroll over the book covers to learn more about each novel, and be sure to add the books that pique your interest to your Want to Read shelf!
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Do you have a great family saga novel to recommend? Share it with your fellow readers in the comments below!
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Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)
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I would add the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Sweeping and epic cannot he used to describe books that are less than 300 pages … come on …
Joshua wrote: "Sweeping and epic cannot he used to describe books that are less than 300 pages … come on …"They needed adjectives. It's a lot like "new and improved."
Gwen wrote: "I would add the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard"Second that!
I loved A Woman is no Man. Memphis was also excellet.
Aurora wrote: "Any of them feature Jewish families?"Presumably the one by Michael Chabon
I’ve read Ask Again, Yes every year for the last 3 years. One of my all time favorite books
Aurora wrote: "Any of them feature Jewish families?"I believe the family in The Immortalists are Jewish. I can't recall how much that comes up, but is definitely important at the beginning.
The Courtney family saga by Wilbur Smith!!!!! Or any of the other family sagas by that author, incredible stories!!!
The Forsythe Saga by Galsworthy. An oldie, but a goodie.
So many good-looking titles.I have only read The Thornbirds - LOVED IT - and The Godfather.
"Buddenbrooks: Decline of a Family" by Thomas Mann is a very good family saga.
I recommend "Daughter of a Nordic Smith" by JMC North. A great historical Viking story.
"Sister of My Heart" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and its sequel are also fabulous. Additionally, "Summer Queen" & the two other novels in the trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine & her children with Henry II, absolutely stunning and fabulous. Really pulls you in and makes for a wonderful read! "The Widow Queen" is another exceptional novel set in Poland and about the vikings/danes who attack England during the years of Emma of Normandy, and the extended families involved in these events.
Also, for a bit more historical fantasy that grips you right from the start, "The Lost Queen" by Signe Pike is wonderful! Its about the sister of the man who would one day be named Merlin, and how she was pivotal in the world of ancient Celtic kingdoms. Its the first in a trilogy, last novel comes out in 22/23.
Connie wrote: "The Forsythe Saga by Galsworthy. An oldie, but a goodie."Loved it, I've read it twice.
A Thousand Acres by Jame Smiley. It's not multi-generational saga, but a fantastic family story and a re-telling of Shakespeare's King Lear. 1992 Pulitzer Prize-winner. But if it's true multi-generational saga you want, try her trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, Golden Age. Each is subtitled "Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga." And they're understatedly brilliant.
I recommend this novel - about William Clark and his family - he was one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition