Chorus

Author: Rebecca Kauffman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Catapult, 2022
Pages: 272
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turns from the early twentieth century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother's mysterious death and the circumstances of one sister's scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation.

Entangled in a family knot, the Shaw siblings face divorce, drama, and death while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter - the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family's love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur.

Review: I absolutely loved this new release. A character-driven novel that is along the same vein as The Nest and The Immortalists, it was light years better. I could not put it down. 

As the siblings lives played out, their experiences and growth seemed reflected real life. The reader gets to know each sibling, and the back and forth, though not alternating timeframes, kept this interesting. The reader hears a chorus of voices of a family's life through the years.

The story was excellent and its execution spot-on.