Top ten toxic families in fiction

Hannah Beckerman is an author and journalist. Her new novel is If Only I Could Tell You.

One of ten toxic families in fiction Beckerman tagged at the Guardian:

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Like [The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie] O’Farrell, Strout explores the nuances of family relationships in her story centred around a five-day hospital visit to Lucy by her estranged mother. Through the course of their conversations, we hear of Lucy’s damaging childhood: of cultural deprivation, financial hardship, paternal rage, and inexplicable punishment. It is a novel that unpicks the tangled complexities of mother-daughter relationships – the conflicts and bonds, the absences and hope for reconciliation – with extraordinary insight and compassion.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue