Everyone by now must know the premise of this novel by New York literary agent Bill Clegg. A vacation home explodes, a family is wiped out. This is the story of those who remain, of grief, of memories and regret, of resentments and prejudice.

This is a very affecting novel, it feels almost voyeuristic, invading the privacy of those who are grieving. It is clear that Bill Clegg writes from the heart, from his own experience, not only of grief but of the Connecticut landscape, the setting, and the secondary theme of drug use. This novel is a study of how ordinary life can be torn apart by tragedy, so mind-blowing that the irrelevance of real life must stop. But daily life doesn’t stop, not really, day follows night, as June discovers as she drives from east to west coast.

This is one of those books I will buy as hardback. I want to keep it, and re-read it often.
To read more about how Bill Clegg writes, click here.

If you like Did You Ever Have a Family, try this:-
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
If I Knew You were Going to be this Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

‘Did You Ever Have a Family’ by Bill Clegg [UK: Jonathan Cape] Buy now

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
What would you do? DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg http://bit.ly/1WxE6mu #bookreview via @SandraDanby