Reading is personal; we are all drawn to different sorts of stories, themes, and styles. My own reading logs reflect my love of fiction about complicated families, including stories focused on the complexities of sibling relationships. I don’t think I even realized I enjoyed reading about siblings until Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, but ever since enjoying that book, I’ve kept my eye out for novels that make the sibling relationship—and not romantic love, marriage, or parent-child bonds—primary.
The sibling bond isn’t often featured in fiction, which is a shame because there’s so much to explore in those early childhood bonds. Siblings share parentage, they often grow up together, often live in the same house. Their life experiences are—to a degree—similar. And yet most siblings are very, very different from each other. Why is that, and how does it happen? These are the questions I enjoy seeing novelists answer in the pages of a good novel.
This book list features many of my favorite sibling stories, along with two that I look forward to reading, as they come highly recommended. I’m always keeping my eye out for more great fictional stories about siblings that I can read next—please share your recommendations for sibling stories in the comments section!
Sibling stories
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Marrying the Ketchups
A family drama centered on a close-knit Chicago family and the Irish American bar and restaurant that's been in their family for generations. It seems every Sullivan family member is at a crisis point, and the reader witnesses them working through their life-shifting career and relationship issues against the backdrop of the bar and restaurant, and the Cubs' unexpected World Series-winning season. If you enjoyed We Are the Brennans or The Most Fun We Ever Had, give this one a close look. More info →
The Last Romantics
I love a story within a story: this sweeping family saga begins with Fiona Skinner, renowned poet, revealing the story behind one of her famous poems—which leads to the tale of her and her siblings. Early tragedy forged a strong bond between the four Skinner children, but it also broke them in ways that didn't become apparent for many years. Decades later, another unfolding tragedy makes them question everything they know about their family. The story feels intimate yet expansive, while exploring the power of stories and the bonds that keep us together. More info →
Hello Beautiful
The author describes her homage to Little Women as "the story of one young man, four sisters, the secrets that threaten to shatter their family, and a love powerful enough to heal it.” I fell completely in love with the Padavano family, and enjoyed seeing how the characters grew and evolved over the decades and generations. The Chicago setting was also a lot of fun. (I did so much googling for places and locations!) Readers, there are A LOT of difficult things in these pages: it might break your heart, but know that ultimately, it's a redemption story. More info →
The Dutch House: A Novel
You know I love sibling stories and meaty family sagas; I'm also drawn to tales told with a reflective, wistful tone. This one delivers on all counts. Cyril Conroy means to surprise his wife with the Dutch House, a grand old mansion outside of Philadelphia. But what some consider a symbol of wealth and success is to others a symbol of greed and excess—including, crucially, Cyril's wife—and the family falls apart over the purchase. In alternating timelines, we get the whole story, spanning five decades, from Cyril's son Danny. When the family collapses, he and his older sister Maeve face poverty and loss, and shelter one another from loneliness and abandonment. I never wanted this to end. More info →
The Most Fun We Ever Had
I read this 500-pager in three days. This is the story of a Chicago couple married for forty years and their four grown daughters. In the opening pages, one daughter reveals a huge family secret, and when she does the long-simmering hurts built up over a lifetime come to a raging boil. The novel tracks what happens over the course of the next drama-filled year of every family member's life, as they deal with the fallout of the revelation and the fresh conflict it introduces into the family. More info →
Clear Light of Day
I added this to my TBR when Alice recommended it during our What Should I Read Next episode 371: What should Anne read next?. This family novel follows two sisters who clearly love each other, but whose relationship is strained, who care for their autistic brother at home. The novel flashes back from Old Delhi to their childhood in independence-era India. Intriguingly, Alice said that “reading it was a little bit more like remembering.” I’m excited to give this sibling story a try. More info →
The Vanishing Half
Identical twins Desiree and Stella grew up in a town so small it doesn't appear on maps. They're closer than close, so Desiree is shocked when Stella vanishes one night after deciding to sacrifice her past—and her relationship with her family—in order to marry a white man, who doesn't know she's Black. Desiree never expects to see her sister again. The twins grow up, make lives for themselves, and raise daughters—and it's those daughters who bring the sisters together again. It's a reunion Stella both longs for and fears, because she can't reveal the truth without admitting her whole life is a lie. More info →
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
When this contemporary literary saga released, everyone raved about it. The premise sells itself: when seven-year old Noa falls overboard a cruise ship on a rare family vacation, everyone gathers around and fears the worst when they see sharks nearby. Instead, Noa is delivered safely back to his mother, and his status as legend is born. But this favor from the Hawaiian gods drives the family apart. More info →
The Arsonists’ City
I was quickly swept up in the story of the complicated Nasr family, with its Syrian mother, Lebanese father, and three adult children flung across the globe. When the patriarch of the family dies, his widow and their three adult children gather in Beirut to sell the ancestral home. The nearly five-hundred page length gives Alyan room to explore each family member in all their complexities—the explosive secrets each is hiding from the others, the long-held hurts and resentments simmering just below the surface, the exasperating familial dynamics they all seem powerless to overcome. More info →
The Latecomer
This is the decades-long story of a wealthy Brooklyn family and their triplets—the smart one, the weird one, and the girl—conceived with the help of IVF. For a bevy of reasons this family never quite gelled, and the siblings carry not a trace of affection for each other. Everything changes when the triplets reach college age, and their mother, yearning for some semblance of familial love, decides to thaw the fourth and only remaining embryo and have another child. The arrival of that child—the latecomer—blows up the whole family. Julia Whelan called Korelitz's follow-up to The Plot "the definition of a brilliant slow build," and I so enjoyed watching her patiently set up the explosive reveal at a Martha's Vineyard birthday celebration that takes place in September 2001. An unexpected bonus was the thread of modern art that runs through the book: I googled so many artists and works along the way! More info →
The Burgess Boys
This is the story of the Burgess siblings: elder brother Jim and twins Bob and Susan. When Susan’s son Zack is charged with a hate crime in his Maine town, the brothers—both NYC attorneys—spring into action, working closely together as they seek to help the young man. As the three siblings try to navigate the charges against Zack, it quickly becomes apparent how many hard feelings permeate this family: they may love each other, but they don’t like each other. The reader learns why as the family history unspools, revealing just how much these siblings’ lives have been marked by a tragic event that happened long ago. More info →
Flight: A Novel
This intimate family drama unfolds over the course of three days, beginning on December 22. We learn that it's been eight months since the family matriarch died, leaving behind only her house in upstate New York, which her three children all want—or want the proceeds from. Daughter Kate desperately wants to raise her children in the family home, but her brothers think they need the money from its sale just as badly. Now just before Christmas, the adult children and grandchildren gather in that home, and it's only a matter of time before their long-held resentments bubble to the surface. A story of loss, privilege, and family friction, but also of love and belonging. More info →
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
When Rose bites into the cake her mom made for her ninth birthday celebration, she tastes sadness in it, and she doesn't understand why or what that means. But slowly it dawns on her that she can taste other people's feelings in the food they make: an unusual talent that often feels like a curse. Her brother has a similarly strange ability: he can withdraw from others so thoroughly that it is as if he literally disappears. Despite the whimsical premise the story is quite sad, as it shows how two siblings each struggle to cope in their own way with the disappointing and destabilizing behavior of the adults in their lives. More info →
We Are the Brennans
A big-hearted, juicy family drama. Five years ago, Sunday Brennan left her small New York hometown, abandoning her parents, three brothers, and devoted fiancé with no explanation. In the present, after a wildly uncharacteristic episode of binge drinking lands her in the hospital, her brother convinces her to come home for a little while to recuperate and help with the Irish American family's struggling bar. Not everyone is thrilled to see the prodigal daughter, and her reappearance eventually causes all kinds of long-held family secrets to finally come pouring out. I loved this for its portrayal of complex family dynamics (especially among the four siblings), its sweet tale of young love, the ever-interesting setting of the bar, and its hopeful—but not tidy—resolution. More info →
A Place for Us
I adored Mirza's slow-burning debut about an Indian-American Muslim family, which skillfully probes themes of identity, culture, family, and generational change. "I am to see to it that I do not lose you," reads the epigraph (Whitman), and the story wonders if, despite our best intentions, one might nevertheless wound someone they love deeply enough to lose them forever. The story opens with the oldest daughter’s wedding: the bride scans the crowd for her beloved yet rebellious brother, hoping he'll appear despite being estranged from the family for years. Through a series of flashbacks, and in rotating points of view, Mirza examines the series of small betrayals that splintered the family, skillfully imbuing quotidian events—a chance meeting at a party, a dinner conversation about a spelling test, a seemingly run-of-the-mill sibling spat—with deep significance, showing how despite their smallness, they irrevocably alter the course of the family’s life. More info →
Do you have a favorite novel about siblings? Tell us all about it in comments!
P.S. 25 family sagas that will sweep you away and 20 notable novels featuring family secrets.
100 comments
I’d also recommend The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin.
Wholeheartedly agree!
Yes! Completely agree!
I also wholeheartedly agree. This was the book that leapt to my mind when I read Anne’s post!
It’s a short story rather than a novel, but The Scarlet Ibis wrecks me every time I read it with high school students.
I don’t know this one—thanks for the rec!
My absolute favorite sibling relationship expressed in a novel is between Agnes and her brother in Hamnet. In fact, I feel Maggie O’Farrell always captures sibling relationships with perfection in all her novels.
Such a good one to add here!
Yes @Barbara, I loved their bond. It was my favorite part of the story!
how could you leave off I know this much is true???? and The Prince of Tides?? great list, thanks for all the suggestions.
The Prince of Tides immediately jumped to my mind, too.
Celesta and Sarah, I don’t want to monopolize the conversation!😂 Thank you for these EXCELLENT additions.
I loved Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, and after reading it I bought a copy. Can I find it now?
I’m just finishing “Home” by Marilynne Robinson and her nuanced, complex portrait of a brother-sister relationship has been really thought provoking.
This is too relatable! It’s probably around here somewhere … 😂
Such a good one!
I Know this Much is True by Wally Lamb! Also the Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang.
Yes!
I also love to read about siblings. I would add The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal, Mrs Everything by Jennifer Weiner, and Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin.
So funny, I was just talking about those Shergill Sisters yesterday! Coming soon to a podcast near you … 🙂
I can’t stop thinking about the sisters storyline in Emily Henry’s Book Lovers.
I’m starting this one today! YAY!
I also loved the family dynamics at play in Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones.
Yes!
One of my favorites!
I loved “The Almost Sisters” by Joshilyn Jackson and second “Home” by Marilynne Robinson.
Wonderful additions!
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. It’s the story of the Stamper family, esp the two brothers and what happens when the younger comes back to their small lumber town on Oregon on the eve of a bitter labor strike. The town and the setting are very much a character in the story.
I haven’t read this one yet, thanks for sharing!
I recently read and became totally immersed in the sibling story of Camino and Yahaira in Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann was terrific as well as Everything Here is Beautiful by Min Lee
I also thought about Everything Here is Beautiful. Loved that one too, even though the relationship between the two sisters was so heartbreaking.
These are all such good choices!
Yes! Olympus Texas! Perfect for this list!
I second Olympus Texas!
Here are some recommendations: Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak, The Sisters Sweet by Elizabeth Weiss, The Bookstore Sisters (novella) by Alice Hoffman, Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard, The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell’Antonia, and One Two Three by Laurie Frankel are a few recent sibling stories I’ve read. Can you tell that this is a favorite topic of mine?
What a great list!
Great list! Two backlist favorites I would add are Lager Queens of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal and Lucky Us by Amy Bloom.
I am always here for backlist favorites!
I am currently reading Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. While the story is much larger than just Benny and Byron, it is a great sibling story as they learn the truth and see how all of that affects who they are today. What a great read!!
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it! (I still haven’t read this one, would you believe it?)
Just finished Hello Beautiful yesterday! Wow, what a book! I, too, love a book about siblings or family saga. An oldie but one I still remember well, We Were The Mulvaneys. As always, thanks Anne!
I’ve had the Mulvaneys on my shelf for ages but still haven’t read it. Thank you for the nudge!
I second We Were the Mulvaneys. I immediately thought of it.
I immediately thought of Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie McDonald. It’s a multigenerational family saga, epic in scope with a shifting time-line. Focusing on four sisters, this book is no Little Women; it is more akin to a Shakespearean tragedy. Unputdownable! Despite its over 500 pages, I finished it in three days.
I haven’t read this yet; thank you for sharing!
And it’s set in Cape Breton where I’m from!
I’d like to recommend Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt.
The first book that came to mind when I read the blog heading was Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie.
Yes, me too! I loved the sibling relationship in Fifty Words for Rain (I loved the book overall too, but hated the ending). It’s one of the few books that I actually have a love/hate relationship with, lol.
Fifty Words for Rain was so good! I also loved The Burgess Boys, Hello Beautiful, and The Dutch House. I would add Shanghai Girls to the list of great sister stories.
The first novel that comes to mind for me is “Inside the O’Briens” by Lisa Genova. I really love her books!
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez is a wonderful book about a family of sisters, based on a true story.
I am currently nearing the end of Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle and there’s a twin relationship in it that I really like.
Love this list. Black Cake is great too!
Wonderful post, Anne! I just realized I’ve read and enjoyed quite a few on this list (and the ones I haven’t read were already on my TBR). Turns out I enjoy stories about family sagas and sibling relationships more than I thought!
There are actually many great family saga / sibling stories I’ve read over the years, but since I can’t list them all, here are 2 few recent favorites that stood out to me:
All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien – This book absolutely blew me away and was one of my favorite reads of 2022. It’s about the Tran family, who live in a refugee enclave in Australia. One night, 17-year-old Denny Tran goes out to dinner with friends at a local restaurant and is murdered in plain sight of dozens of witnesses. The family is devastated, but since none of the witnesses are willing to talk, plus the area is known for a proliferation of drugs, so the police force essentially writes off their case as “bad luck.” Denny’s sister Ky returns home to take care of her grieving parents and after burying her brother, she is determined to find out what happened. Since the police won’t help, she decides to seek out and interrogate each of the witnesses herself. Each person Ky talks to brings her closer to the truth, but the process also reveals some of the rifts in the Tran family that drove Ky to leave in the first place. It’s a beautiful story, told in an interesting format: each chapter is narrated from the alternating perspectives of Ky, her parents, and the witnesses who were at the restaurant that night. This is one of those rare books that I’ve read only once, but can’t stop thinking about it all the time – goes to show how much of an impact the story had on me.
Kaleidoscope by Cecily Wong – This one is hard to describe. I also read it last year and have very complicated thoughts about it (which I detail in my review). This is a “rags to riches” story about an interracial family – Hank and Karen Brighton are successful enterpreneurs who launch a company named Kaleidoscope. They have 2 daughters, Morgan and Riley, who have very different feelings toward their parents’ success. This was a nuanced story with a narrative that shifted around a lot, switching between time periods and character perspectives as well as narrative voice. I wrote in my review that the segments of the story mirrored the various fragments of a kaleidoscope, where the seemingly scattered pieces come together to form a dizzying but arresting portrait of an ambitious family caught up in the throes of success and the impact it has on each member of the family (especially the 2 daughters). This is one of those books that is not an easy read, but sticking with it pays off in the end.
I loved Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi. There’s some heavy content among the complicated sister relationship that’s at the core of this novel. Really loved the character development along with a romance story.
Henry’s Sisters by Cathy Lamb is fabulous.
I loved Henry’s Sisters by Cathy Lamb, and would also add I Know This Much is True and Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese.
I happened across “Marmee” by Sarah Miller at the library last week. Could not check it out fast enough! It’s by the author of “Caroline”, a fictional take on Ma Ingalls. Both enjoyable and totally recommend.
Marmee is written as a diary, and the descriptions of all the familiar scenes with the March sisters take on a new perspective when you hear the mother’s side.
Have read many on Anne’s list and here in the comments. Thank you all for sharing.
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
I recommend The Survivors by Alex Schulman. It’s a Swedish translation that was highly recommended by Fredrik Backman.
Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman
And Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Let’s not forget about Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese!
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
For the dysfunctional among us, “Same House, Different Homes” is about adult children of alcoholics and the way their birth order affects the sibling relationship.
There are 2 I haven’t seen mentioned here, The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman and Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld. The Sittenfeld book was a long time ago but I remember really liking it. I’m currently listening to her new one, Romantic Comedy and it is really good, great narrator too! Thanks for this great list, lots to look for here!
I was just about to add Curtis Sittenfield’s Sisterland. It was an entertaining read. Also in the nonfiction list anything by David Sedaris.
I second One, Two, Three!
Also just finished The Frederick Sisters are Living the Dream.
I’d like to add a likely unknown book to the list — The Light-Keeper’s Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol. I found it at the thrift store, had never heard of it, but loved it. It is a very dramatic siblings story, situated on a small island in the middle of Lake Superior. Flap copy says ‘Sisters Elizabeth and Emily grow up on an isolated Lake Superior island where their father tends the lighthouse. When tragedy arrives in the midst of a storm, the light keeper makes a fateful decision that will echo down through the generations….’
With multiple timelines, slow reveal, and a real twist at the end, I was tempted to immediately reread this book just to see technically how it was all put together.
Jean E. Pendziwol is a Canadian author, primarily of children’s books, but I really hope this 2017 book for adults won’t be her last.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck is the first book that comes to my mind.
Pineapple Street seems to fit with this theme. I am reading it now and am enjoying it very much.
Yes it does!
I would also recommend The Mill on the Floss. It has a heartfelt,loving, but frought older brother, younger sister relationship that hit home with me!
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller was one of my favorite books in 2022. It features an adult brother and sister who are desperately poor but devoted to each other. It will break your heart.
Ann, surprised you didn’t mention Instructions for a Heatwave: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell. Just read recently, it was a good one.
Ugg, sorry Anne, forgot the “e”
All three of Mary Lawson’s books (A Town Called Solace, Crow Lake, Road Ends) are very engaging family dramas with interesting sibling dynamics. They have been favorite reads!
Malibu Rising Is a perfect sibling novel.
And I loved Black Cake so much that I found an online bakery and ordered a genuine black cake – and it was delicious.
First Comes Love by Emily Giffin is a story about two sisters and their strained relationship. And The All of It by Jeannette Haien is a strange and twisted story about a sister and brother; I read this book because Anne Patchett highly recommended it.
I have to add Peace Like a River, with the narrator Reuben, his precocious little sister Swede, and his older brother on the run….what a close family, since Mom deserted them. Also The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth—intriguing two sisters. And The Lincoln Highway includes big brother Emmett and his little brother Billy on the trip of a lifetime. And Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty—a family of 4 sibs, dealing with their mother’s disappearance. And let’s not forget classics like Little Women, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility!
I have read and enjoyed several of the books on Anne’s list, and just started Flight. Sibling relationships were important in Kent Haruf’s Plainsong and Eventide, as well as William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, books I loved.
YES YES YES!!! Love Kent Haruf and William Kent Kreuger.
I just read Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan, which was all about sibling relationships. So good! I also loved Olympus, Texas.
Years ago, our book club read a really old book called I Capture the Castle written by Dodie Smith (the author of 101 Dalmations). Cassandra and her observations about her eccentric family are just delightful. We particularly enjoyed the quirkiness of Topaz and her love of the solstices. Being an old book, it has a bit more of the gentleness that is hard to find in today’s books.
And, I cannot ignore Pride and Prejudice.
Terry, my mind never goes to the classics when I think about sibling books—but Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful addition here! Thanks so much for pointing that out.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
East of Eden
The Lincoln Highway
Jane Austen’s many books with siblings galore
All excellent reads!
“Love this list! I’d add ‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott to the mix. It beautifully captures the bond between sisters and their unique personalities. Any other sister-centered books you’d recommend?”
I would add This is Where I Leave You by Johnathan Tropper!
Such a good addition!
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Loved “Weird Sisters” by Eleanor Brown –
3 sisters wildly different from each other.
Connie
My first thought for a book that showcases a sibling story that stays with you is Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson. It’s been more than three decades since I first read it and my heart is still caught up in the story.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
I don’t read nearly as much modern fiction as I do classics, so that’s where my mind goes. The sibling relationship in Sense & Sensibility resonated for me the moment I read it. Also the sibling relationships in A Wrinkle in Time is one that has stuck with me since childhood.
I would definitely add One Two Three, by Laurie Frankel – centered around a set of triplets, with each chapter narrated by one of the triplets. One of my favorite books ever!
The Penderwick Series by Jeanne Birdsall. My 11 year old daughter and I are both reading through the series and it is delightful.
Whiskey & Charlie by Annabel Smith was a very interesting book about siblings.
I recommend The Lilac Girls.
Bridge of Clay by Marcus Zusak is a fabulous sibling book involving five brothers.
An amazing book, heart wrenching and propelled onward forward and backward in time to weave an unforgettable story of love, loss, humanity and eternity. Zusak and his unique writing style lay down a densely layered narrative, and as in the Classics that are part of the story, this tale is not written in a linear fashion. So much grief and loss and always the basic battleground of humankind, our struggle with mortality.
Yes!!! The Dunbar boys will stay with me forever!
Yes! Agree with Clap When You Land. I have The Brothers K on my shelf to read. I also love the family dynamics in The Cazelet Chronicles books by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Great topic Anne.
I’m super-late but if anyone’s still reading, I’d recommend The Turner House. I’m an only child, but the dynamics between the Turner kids – as kids and adults – rang so true with both of my folks’ stories (both the oldest of very big families). It’s also got a very strong sense of place for Detroit (with the exception of a few SoCal turns of phrase by the author).