12 books about estranged family members reconnecting
Family. It’s a word that can be filled with love, joy, and belonging—but it can also be fraught with tension, distance, and unresolved pain. When estranged family members reunite, they are often forced to confront the ghosts of their past, and the complex tapestry of love, resentment, forgiveness, and healing. These 12 books tell powerful, poignant stories about families coming together after years of silence, broken bonds, and emotional turmoil. In each, the road to reconciliation is fraught with challenges—but the reward is often more profound than imagined.
1. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
In This Is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel explores the story of the Walsh-Adams family and their journey toward understanding and acceptance. When their youngest child, Claude, begins to express a desire to live as a girl, the family faces turmoil and a complicated journey of estrangement and healing. Over time, the family learns how to rebuild their relationships and, ultimately, embrace one another fully. The novel is an exploration of the complicated process of reuniting family members, navigating identity, and coming to terms with the parts of ourselves that we often keep hidden.
2. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle is a raw and powerful recounting of her dysfunctional upbringing, marked by neglect and poverty. As an adult, Walls reflects on her strained relationship with her parents, who prioritized their own dreams over their children’s needs. Over time, she finds herself reconnecting with her parents—coming to terms with the bitterness of her past and attempting to heal those broken bonds. It’s a story of family, resilience, and how love can bloom even in the most unlikely circumstances, though the scars of estrangement remain.
3. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
In Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty crafts a multifaceted narrative about family secrets, domestic struggles, and the complexities of personal histories. At the center of the story is Madeline, who is navigating a complicated relationship with her ex-husband Nathan and his new wife. After years of estrangement, Madeline and Nathan find themselves unexpectedly reconnecting as they’re forced to address old wounds and misunderstandings. The novel delves into how familial ties can evolve, heal, and transform under the pressure of time and life’s harsh realities.
4. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky’s classic The Brothers Karamazov is a gripping exploration of familial conflict, moral dilemmas, and the quest for redemption. The story revolves around the Karamazov brothers—Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei—and their father, Fyodor Pavlovich. After years of neglect and miscommunication, the brothers find themselves caught up in the murder of their father, sparking a series of reckonings that force them to reevaluate their relationships and confront their individual sins. The Brothers Karamazov is a tale of fractured familial love and the slow, painful process of reconciliation.
5. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Ove is a grumpy, solitary man who has lived a life of strict routines and isolation—until a new family moves in next door and unwittingly begins to chip away at his emotional walls. Through a series of events, Ove reconnects with the world around him and faces the grief and loss of estranged family members. While A Man Called Ove isn’t centered on biological family reuniting, it poignantly demonstrates how we can rebuild meaningful connections when we least expect it—and how the bonds we form can be as vital as those tied by blood.
6. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale tells the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, who are forced to reckon with their painful, estranged relationship during the turmoil of World War II. The war acts as a crucible that forces both sisters to rediscover their familial bonds, and in doing so, they find healing and strength in each other. The Nightingale is a moving testament to the power of sisterhood, showing how even deep rifts can be mended through sacrifice, understanding, and love.
7. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
In The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin explores the lives of four siblings who, as children, are told by a fortune teller the exact dates of their deaths. This knowledge shapes their futures and their relationships, causing deep rifts between them over the years. When tragedy strikes, the siblings must face the ways in which their estrangement has affected their lives and decide whether they can reconnect and heal the wounds that time has carved. The novel is a beautifully written meditation on fate, family, and the healing power of reconnection.
8. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
In The Light Between Oceans, a lighthouse keeper and his wife make a life-altering decision to keep a baby they find washed ashore, leading to years of guilt, secrecy, and estrangement from their families. When the truth comes to light, the characters must confront the fractured relationships and seek reconciliation with the people they’ve hurt. Stedman’s story is one of love, loss, and the powerful need to reconnect after years of distance, exploring the moral and emotional complexities of familial ties.
9. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
In The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, Samuel Hawley is a father with a dark past, marked by twelve bullet wounds—each a symbol of his violent history. His daughter, Loo, must grapple with the sins of her father and the emotional distance that has formed between them over the years. As they rebuild their relationship in the small town of Olympus, they uncover long-buried secrets that ultimately bring them closer together. Tinti’s novel is a thrilling and poignant exploration of redemption, the father-daughter bond, and how the past shapes our futures.
10. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
In Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, the protagonist Harold, a retired man in his 60s, embarks on a journey to reconnect with an old friend who is dying. Throughout his walk, Harold reflects on his estranged relationship with his wife, Maureen, and the years of emotional distance between them. This pilgrimage becomes not only a physical journey but also a spiritual one, where Harold must reconcile his past mistakes, reclaim his relationship with his wife, and heal old wounds. It’s a deeply moving tale about love, loss, and the possibility of redemption through reconnection.
11. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
In Jonas Jonasson’s quirky and humorous novel, the protagonist Allan Karlsson, at 100 years old, escapes his nursing home and embarks on an unexpected adventure that leads him into contact with his estranged family and past acquaintances. As he inadvertently stumbles into a series of comical misadventures, Allan is forced to confront his relationships and the choices he made that distanced him from those he once loved. The 100-Year-Old Man is a whimsical yet profound exploration of reconciliation, second chances, and the absurdity of life.
12. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking is a poignant and heart-wrenching memoir about the author’s grief after the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and the prolonged illness of their only daughter. Through Didion’s raw narrative, we see the unraveling of family bonds under the weight of tragedy and the long process of reconciling with the past. It’s a powerful meditation on loss, memory, and the delicate process of healing fractured relationships within the family.
Final Thoughts
The journey of estranged family members reconnecting is one fraught with emotion, complexity, and profound transformation. These 12 books show the varied paths that family members can take as they come back together—through love, guilt, pain, or redemption. They remind us that while the road to healing may be difficult, the bond of family, however strained, can ultimately be restored. Whether it’s through personal reconciliation, unexpected reunions, or healing from past wounds, these books offer hope for the broken, the lost, and the forgotten ties that can be mended with time, understanding, and effort.
