A new novel by a beloved classic author. Warm, slightly ironic, insightful. It is once again a journey into the world of an ordinary family. From the 1950s, when a shiny red Chevrolet honks outside the window, to our days enveloped in a pandemic. In the summer of 1959, the Berrettis set out on their first and last family vacation. They barely leave the rented cottage, but in a way, they have never been so distant from each other. After that trip, everything in the family quietly but surely begins to drift apart. Mercy struggles against the urge — she so badly wants to become an artist. But who will then take care of the home, prepare meals for her husband Robin? Her daughters, the balanced Alice and the boy-crazy Lily, are completely unlike each other and cannot find common ground. Their younger brother David, having left to study, almost severs ties with the family. And yet something connects them all despite all disagreements and misunderstandings, something elusive. And each member of this seemingly disconnected family influences the lives of the others. Because family is something deeper than just kinship, family is like a French braid: you think you've escaped your relatives, but you cannot free yourself from them; they, like the curls of a loose braid, are still intertwined. Full of love for people, hope, joy mixed with bitterness, "The French Braid" is a classic story by Anne Tyler. An amazingly insightful novel about family abysses, about the impossibility of freeing oneself from those who love us.