Family History

Shapiro has both a best-selling writer's instinct for plot and pacing and a fine literary sensibility... A powerful, penetrating illumination of the hidden agendas and consequences of family relationships

Elle

Shapiro is an abundantly emotional writer with a deep understanding of life's banal blessings

Los Angles Times

FAMILY HISTORY is virtually impossible to put down

Jennifer Egan

Shapiro's suspenseful novel movingly explores the fragility of family life... the overall effect is to create a web that lures readers in, curious to find out who is guilty of what and whether the ending will be happy

People

A brutal firecracker of a novel that chronicles the dissolution of a cinematically perfect New England Family

Newsday

Real heart-in-your-throat scariness... the characters are so real and the situations so emotional that they leave the reader almost dizzy

San Francisco Chronicle

One of those books most readers will finish in one sitting... because it is so intense you can't take a break. In gripping, moving prose, Shapiro reminds us of any family's essential fragility, but also of the tenacious strength of love

Detroit Free Press

Elegantly written, wry and unsettling.

NPR

This gripping narrative has the deeply felt emotional fidelity of a true story; it’s a book readers will finish in one sitting.

Publishers Weekly

Shapiro writes wonderfully. . .she gently regulates the tone of the novel to reflect the tenuous nature of its central conflict

Chicago Tribute

A gripping account of a contemporary Massachusetts family of four unraveling as problems with the eldest daughter start to rip the delicate fabric of love and partnership.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Shapiro’s small observations of motherhood are keen and astute; they demand empathy…realistic and heartbreaking

The San Diego Union-Tribune