Other People's Children
a poignant story of marriage, divorce - and stepchildren from one of Britain’s best loved authors, Joanna Trollope
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4.4 • 15 Ratings
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Publisher Description
Readers of Erica James, Elizabeth Noble and Amanda Prowse will love this wonderfully thought-provoking and moving novel of family dynamics from multi-million copy bestselling author Joanna Trollope. It really is Trollope at her very best.
'A gripping read - as shrewdly observant of psychological and domestic detail as anything she has written' -- Daily Telegraph
'Wonderfully and compulsively readable... She can be as subtle as Austen, as sharp as Bronte. Trollope's brilliant' -- Mail on Sunday
'Trollope has shown herself capable of such emotional depth, that although you turn the pages quickly, it is with trembling fingers' -- The Times
'One of the very best stories I've ever read' -- ***** Reader review
'Superb' -- ***** Reader review
'A compulsive read' -- ***** Reader review
'I loved every moment of this book' -- ***** Reader review
'Couldn't put it down...' -- ***** Reader review
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TWO PEOPLE IN LOVE DON'T NECESSARILY MAKE A FAMILY
For eight-year-old Rufus life has become complicated. His parents, Josie and Tom, have divorced and are setting off on separate paths.
But now, other people have had to become involved, like his mother's new husband Matthew and his father's new friend Elizabeth. What's even worse is that there are other children too, Matthew's three teenagers, who have been conditioned by their mother Nadine to hate his mother Josie.
Matthew's children come to their father for weekends and make it clear how much they loathe Josie. Rufus secretly prefers to be with his father, in his peaceful flat in Bath, where he realises that he doesn't actually hate the idea of a stepmother, if she is peaceful and sane like Elizabeth.
But where other people's children are concerned, neat solutions seldom occur ...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A skilled artisan of nuance and insight reveals a vigorous new edge as she explores the painful and contentious arena of stepfamilies. Here Trollope focuses on three women and two men who wrestle with new family configurations, along with their six children, ranging from eight to 28. When Josie marries Matthew, she already has experience as both a mother and stepmother, and she feels prepared for the impending battles with Matthew's difficult and bitter ex-wife, Nadine. But her patient determination crumbles as Matthew's three children turn sullen, mutinous and downright nasty to Josie and her eight-year-old son, Rufus. "Has it ever struck you that stepchildren can be quite as cruel as stepmothers are supposed to be?" Josie asks her sister-in-law, who later observes, "Everyone seems to expect so much of women it nearly drove you mad." Things seem at first to be a lot easier for Josie's ex-husband, Tom, an architect who has two other children besides Rufus (Tom's first wife died suddenly when his children were small). In no time Tom has a fianc e, the calm and reasonable Elizabeth, whom Rufus (who visits Tom regularly) seems to like rather well. It is Tom's 25-year-old daughter, Dale, who can't bear to see her father passionately in love. The narrative moves back and forth between Josie and Elizabeth as the latter finds her new life in sudden turmoil; the spare, dramatic revelation of Dale's psychological hold on Tom injects Hitchcockian suspense. Though Trollope's wry intelligence supports the plot, her command of raw emotional content--her portraits of the children, for example--is equally impressive. The urgency of her vision adds clout to this affecting drama. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections; Penguin audio; author tour. FYI: Berkley will publish The Best of Friends in March. Trollope will be Writer in Residence at Victoria magazine during 1999.
