Next of Kin

by Joanna Trollope

More than twenty years ago, a young American named Carolyn came to the Meredith family farm, marrying Robin Meredith and settling — never quite comfortably — into rural English life. Now Caro has died, leaving behind a husband who has long slept in a separate bedroom and an angry adopted daughter. But another young woman is about to arrive. Her name is Zoe, and unlike Caro, she finds something compelling in the Meredith's strenuous, earthbound lifestyle — and in Robin...

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Chick Lit, British Literature, Novels, Death

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Joanna Trollope Potter Curteis (aka Caroline Harvey)

Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001.

From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Juliet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favorite Joanna Trollope novel. This one is darker than her usual fare, but I loved it. The common problem that everyone is faced with -- how do we cope with the rigors of farm life -- is a very real and very challenging one. Zoe's character is quintessential Trollope, which is to say she is the newcomer on the scene who upends everything yet at the same time propels people toward the best choices. She's a bit too often right or good or something for my taste, but otherwise I loved all the characters in this book. I thought they were true individuals and distinctly drawn. One of my favorite scenes is between the surviving wife and their little boy, and her realization that she has to make decisions for his benefit, and the bond that is forged between them is wonderful. Trollope is always good at writing children, and this time is no different.

I will definitely be re-reading this in the future.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Joanna Trollope book I have read. Ordinarily I am not a fan of what I would call the "family drama" genre. I find most of that type of book overly dramatic with characters that are stereotypical and conclusions that are a bit too pat. Neither this book or the previous one I read (Other People's Children) are like that. The characters are real with both positive and negative traits. The emotions feel true and complex. This book looked at the process of coming to terms (or not) with losses: of loved ones, of relationships, of hope. Set on an English farm many of the characters believed that one should "soldier on" in the face of difficulties and of not discussing emotions (no point in crying about it. That won't fix anything. Just do what needs doing). This is not to say that the book is a sad book. At the end of the day, it is about resilience. Finally the book doesn't feel like an ending but rather like a new beginning.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

After tragedies disrupt a close-knit farming family, they are all paralyzed with grief. Into this combustible situation comes Zoe, the roommate of Judy, one of the farmer's daughter. She serves as a catalyst, breaking up molecules and rejoining them. I really liked the complexity of Trollope's characters and their relationships.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

In fairness to Joanna Trollope, even though this book had a lot of characters, she managed to give us a good sense of all of them. Unfortunately, I didn’t like any of them, especially the manic pixie dream girl, who served to shake things up, but actually overstepped her friend’s boundaries in a terrible way. But they were all awful, with the possible exception of the sister-in-law/widow.

The descriptions of the farming were upsetting too, so it was hard to get worked up about what was going to happen to the farms, which seemed to be what the resolution of the novel revolved around.

[Barb Kelownagurl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this on the shelf of the old country house near Canterbury, UK, I’m looking after right now. Seemed fitting. Decent read, interesting story. 3 1/2 stars

[Melanie Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in the countryside is messy in this book - adults are messy, children are messy, their relationships are messy, the animals are messy, the farms are messy, the finances are messy, death is messy, grief is messy - but for all that, it contrasts with the superficiality of urban life and comes out winning. Mess tends to spill over and forces change:
' 'It's a change," Robin said, settling Hughie against him. 'That's what's frightening....' 'You just have to wait', Robin said, holding him. 'That's all we can do, all of us. We have to wait until we're used to it...'
I am impressed by this book - it is well-researched (lots of detail about life on the dairy and arable farms) and explores the tension between a desire to belong and a desire to be itinerant. Some of the characters seethe with repressed emotion, whilst others explode with frustration. Secrets and lies result in ticking time bombs. Joanna Trollope weaves her threads skillfully and bears the reader along to a satisfying ending, despite the fact that some of the characters have been cast adrift.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read Joanna Trollope some 30 years ago and enjoyed her novels. They were easy to read, gentle and not taxing on the brain.

This story was set around the farming community and dealt with grief, honesty and relationships. About three-quarters through, I did wonder if I'd read it before.

An enjoyable read - nothing bad, nothing sensational.

[Gayle Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very different to her usual novels. It’s still a close examination of relationships and daily lives but the themes were darker overall. I do really enjoy her style of writing though and this was no different.

[Victoria Curtin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

[Rita Reece · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remote family family in limbo after 2 tragic deaths in the family. Zoe comes into their life’s and with the innocence of an outsider, leads the family and herself to a better place. Compassion and friendship.

[Morggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An odd book yet one of her best. I never expected to like it as much I did. The characters and their emotions were so real. She covered the difficult subject of sudden loss of a loved one and the attendant grief, sorrow and suffering with empathy and grace. This book reminds that life is not only unpredictable but goes on in spite of death and the living must continue to live whether we want to or not.
It also reminds one that where there is life there is still hope.

[Pearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has Next of Kin ever been on Oprah's book list? If not, it should have been. Almost a perfect choice for Oprah, although perhaps not quite grim enough.

Until about 2/3rds of the way through I thought - I don't dislike this book but I don't quite like it either. I began to like it better as I read to the end but probably not enough to read another book by this author.

It's the story of a just barely middle-class English family who love their farm and their way of doing things more than anything else, more than they love one another. Certainly more than they love "strangers" who have married into their family. Not that their farm is prosperous or that the land gives much back to them, but it's what they know and, for them, it's life. They are proud and unyielding and unwilling/unable to change and are emotionally shut-down. Carry on!

Then, as must happen in order to have a story, change comes unbidden: two deaths and a 20-something, totally open, totally-in-the-moment young girl comes into their lives. Is this a story of redemption? Not quite, I don't think, but the younger generation may learn to shake the shackles of the past and help the older generation a bit.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The funeral is held of wife and mother Caro Meredith. Joanna Trollope's tale of a farming community, read by Robin Ellis.


I have tried many but Jeepers - I swear JT wants to be the latest in a long line of Hardy wanabees. Trubble is, Hardy had skill - we read his stuff as a bunny caught in headlights and somehow love it. (well I do)

I want a referee's whistle and a red card. I never wish to see this woman's name ever again.

[Dorina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Surprised. I've read several books by this author and have enjoyed them. Picked this up off my bookshelf and started to read. I really struggled to get through the first chapter as it was a little sad, started at a funeral. Then I continued to struggle, started to skim and stopped reading at page 70. For me, this was slow moving. I am passing it along, hoping the next reader will enjoy it more than I.

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book about grief and how one really doesn't know their family and how one deals with all these issues when a parent passes away.

Really enjoyed all the farm scenes/moments, wanted to live on a farm in GB and get to drive a land rover around.

Also really enjoyed the dynamics between the main character, the daughter and her roomate.

[Dana Nucera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a well written story about hard life on a farm. It was about perserverance and family ties. I enjoyed the read, but I doubt I will read anymore of her books because I get the feeling they are all generally the same in theme and outcome.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it several years ago. A powerful, moving story describing a searing picture of a farming family at a tragic crossroads.

[Gotogrrl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Formulaic. Crappy characters I didn't like. The big zero.

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for the flashback chapter that took place in California (which demonstrated the author's total lack of knowledge about day-to-day life in America), I really enjoyed this book. It's hard to find realistic books about farm life even here in the United States, and I'd never read anything about modern farm life (as opposed to All Creatures Great and Small-type nostalgia) in the UK, so this book was a breath of fresh air to me. Like most of Trollope's stories, it starts with a precipitating incident (in this case, the death of a family member that nobody much liked). What really interests the author is how that change affects everybody involved, in the family and in the wider community.

This is a novel of feelings, but it is by no means sentimental or soft. I learned what I probably should have already suspected, that British farm folk aren't much different than their American counterparts. They're too busy, for the most part, for pretty pastoral thoughts, and tend to just get on with gut-wrenching situations that would floor most urban dwellers. The characters here might have had different names for things, but they remind me very much of the people I grew up with in North Dakota, and I enjoyed the time I spent with them.

(Side note: I have no idea what the American publishers were thinking about when they went with this cover. It doesn’t represent the content in any way. This is not a pretty pastel book!)

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed this from a streetside neighbourhood library - my first Joanna Trollope novel. There are things to like about this book. It has interesting themes on the pros and cons of being a rambler compared to those who are rooted in one place. It also reads as a faithful account of farming in England at a time (1990s) when small family farms were being absorbed into larger farming concerns. I also very much liked how she wrapped up the book, which I won't spoil but it definitely lends itself to a feminist reading.

But it had its downsides too. I found Zoe, a young woman who wears black and keeps her hair cut short and died magenta, to be carrying too much of the novel. She had the unfortunate job of being the 'truth-teller,' the Morgan Freeman of the story. Her prophetic abilities were just too unbelievable and also drained some of the characters of their own agency. While she is on the surface an appealing character, her portrayal is just too tiresome, and whenever she popped up you know the truth bombs were about to be dropped on all and sundry. When she initiates a relationship with her friend's father - !!! - suffice to say this plot has not aged well in a time of Me Too and a better understanding of power dynamics.

[Mystica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a bit darker than the rest of her books. Death, resultant grief, the myriad ways people handle grief and then the resultant period which follows intense grieving. A bit of an eye opener for me personally anyway.

We have the opening scene with the death of Caro, someone who came from America twenty years ago and who never quite adapted to the vagaries of hard farm life and with her death releases a whole lot of intense emotion which seemed to have been bottled up within her family and extended family for decades.

When her death is followed by the violent death of her brother in law - the reasons for his depression under estimated and unknown by his own family - everyone is not brought closer together which should be the case but rather further divided into their own little coccoons of not knowing what they should have done, what they did not do right and generally being more miserable than they were before.

Every character was unique, every character we can read in people within our own family, the situations are similar and we wonder whether we would behave like this. The story gets you questioning oneself, ones ethics and morals and whether we are found wanting.

A really profound novel.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is well written. It has a great sense of place, and I feel like it is probably describing very accurately the culture of a close-knit, hard scrabble farming community in England.

The problem is that I don't find any of the characters likable. They're all emotionally stunted, incapable of meaningful communication, holding everything close to the vest, stoic, reserved--doers, not sayers. And I think this is, again, probably very true to those sorts of communities, but it's tedious to read. I find empathizing with and sympathizing with them very difficult and so couldn't get into the book at all.

[Suzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked the book without knowing that I needed it.
It's a book about grieving, about sorrow, about hurt.. and overcoming it.
Reading these pages we can forget one's pain and pretend it's the characters. Because one feels understood, one can cry. Out.
Nothing is easy. But it should. It ought to. One knows it should.
What's left after pain. What's left after the apathy of something one doesn't always understand. Or want to.
What's left is what we look at in the mirror. Not always a pretty sight. Like a dead bird on the sidewalk. No longer alive, no longer a pretty vessel of fluffyness and hopes soaring up when we cannot. But useful even in death.
The book found me.

[Julie Dunnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately this is a book about grief and how it rips opens the fabric of life in a family and causes all to reevaluate their lives and preconceptions. The book does this well but I am afraid that the family and marriages to start with are so dysfunctional it’s hard to feel in sympathy with them. Poor Robin in a loveless marriage with a thankless adopted child Judy who is truly horrid working so hard to keep the farm going needs a break. The implication is that Judys friend Zoe is the reason for the changes, but these would have happened anyway, and I think she is an irrelevance!

[Soozee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a little disappointing. I am finding the author portrays women in quite a negative way, so I have no empathy at all with the main characters. A little like 'The men and the girls', the women in this were annoying and the men weak and transparent sort of characters. I don't really like to read a book where all the main characters annoy me!
I do usually like her observations on life, but this one did not work for me at all.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novel. How does a California girl who considers herself a nomad find happiness married to a dairy farmer in rural England? She doesn’t. This novel opens with her funeral. Her husband, adopted daughter and in-laws all must find ways to deal with their grief and learn how to live without her. Trollope’s novels have very well-developed, believable characters. This novel would provide for a very good book club discussion.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be one of the most depressing books I have ever read. If not the most. So heavy page after page. No lightening whatsoever right to the end. Every single character in this book needed serious professional help. And what’s so odd is it was that obvious but never once mentioned. Not one of them had the clarity to see there was something really, really wrong with an entire family that could not face the future. Yet they could not love each other. Yet they could not leave.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joanna Trollope is one of my favorite writers, and whenever I see a book of hers, I pick it up. This one is about 20 years old now, but still was a good read. Her character development is always fully developed and surprising. The stories are well thought out and engaging. Next of Kin centers on family farm life in England and was a very interesting story.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was being de-accessioned from our local library and I have read others by this author so I picked it up. I almost gave up on it - it just wasn't grabbing me and I didn't like the characters. Everything seemed focused around the woman whose funeral is the first thing you read about. However, there was an "accident" not long after that completely changed the opinion I had of the book and the plot of the story. I was very glad I kept with it and by the end, I was caught up in these lives and especially their futures. I even ended up liking the Mother (Dilys) which I never expected. My advice - stick with it - it does get better.

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Joanna Trollope's better books. She handles the subject of suicide; which is a universal problem in farming communities worldwide; realistically, sympathetically and credibly. sometimes I find the children in Trollope's novels annoying, but the three little ones in "Next of Kin" act their ages and are undeniably real.