Markovits, Benjamin

Markovits’s second title featuring the Essinger family will find an audience with readers looking for a holiday story that’s light on the Christmas merrymaking and more focused on the complex dynamics at work in relationships among adult siblings, their spouses and children, and their aging parents.

Markovits (Imposture), named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, offers a low-key first-person narration and tight blend of fact and fiction to give the novel the feel of a fictionalized memoir. Unfortunately, though this approach imparts a sharp sense of realism, it also undercuts much of the drama to be mined from the economic and cultural disparities Markovits depicts.

A complex book that would appeal especially to fans of historical fiction and the Romantic period.