Family Drama: Fiction About Family Secrets

My favorite summer reads are books with lots of drama—and what has more drama than a family dealing with long-buried secrets? A great example is Ilana Masad’s All My Mother's Lovers. Maggie thought her parents had a happy marriage, something she has never been able to find in her own life. But when her mother dies unexpectedly, it’s up to Maggie to deliver five envelopes addressed to mysterious men to find out the truth about her mother’s life.

If you enjoy reading about the slow reveal of family secrets, dive into these books.

In All This Could Be Yours, the Tuchman family struggles to say goodbye to their patriarch, Victor, after he suffers a heart attack. Through shifting perspectives and timelines, each member of the family reflects on the secret they share with Victor.

When Althea, the eldest sister of the Butler family in The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, is arrested, her younger sisters have to sort through Althea’s lies and raise her teenage daughters.

Celeste Ng’s first book, Everything I Never Told You, shows how secrets can lie beneath the surface of even the most perfect family.  When Lydia, the “perfect” daughter, is found dead, the Lee family is forced to confront how secrets of the past can haunt you in the present.

Searching for Sylvie Lee explores family secrets and the Chinese immigrant experience through the eyes of two sisters, Sylvie and Amy.  After Sylvie disappears from a trip to visit relatives in Amsterdam, younger sister Amy must find her.