cover image The Family Compound

The Family Compound

Liz Parker. Lake Union, $14.95 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-5420-3655-9

Five cousins squabble over a tract of family-owned property in the affecting latest from Parker (All Are Welcome). After the Nolan family patriarch dies and bequeaths two houses on 150 acres in Stowe, Vt., to five cousins, they bicker about what to do with the compound while dealing with their personal troubles. There’s 35-year-old Penny, the youngest, who’s battling depression and looked down on by her family for working as a produce sorter at a grocery store. Forty-five-year-old Halsey, the oldest, is recently divorced her cheating husband and has to figure out how to co-parent their adorable if exhausting six-year-old son. Laurie lives a glamorous life as a successful lawyer in New York City, but hides her affair with a younger colleague. The emotionally repressed Chris and William, a wannabe “yogi influencer,” round out the group. As the dysfunctional cousins stumble through their messy lives, they must learn to act as a family to decide the compound’s fate. The fighting can be tedious at times, but the drama is richly realized and believable in its messiness. The result is an excruciatingly realistic portrayal of the power of family to infuriate and hearten. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (Aug.)