French Braid

She is and always will be my favourite author

LIANE MORIARTY

Anne Tyler really is the best . . . her sheer brilliance makes it all seem so effortless

GRAHAM NORTON

One of my favourite writers

ALI SMITH

A queen of American literature

i newspaper

Fans of Anne Tyler will be delighted by French Braid, a family saga that takes us from the 1950s to the present

Must-Read Books 2022, Daily Mail

The ever reliable and delightful Anne Tyler

The Year Ahead in Books, Scotsman

A new Anne Tyler novel is an island of certainty in a tumultuous world

Reasons To Be Cheerful in 2022, Daily Telegraph

Tyler's sentences are wholly hers, instantly recognisable and impossible to duplicate

HANYA YANIGIHARA

Such a perfect work of fiction, you want to turn it over like a tapestry to see how it is done; how Tyler can sew gentle humour into a truly heart-wrenching story, and twist all of life's hurts into a family saga that is ultimately life-affirming, and a brisk and thrilling read. We readers are so lucky a writer like Tyler exists

MEG MASON

Lushly imagined, psychologically intricate, virtually inhalable...Tyler balances gracefully between tenderness and piquant humor, her insights into human nature luminous

Booklist

[A] stunning novel

Sainsbury's Magazine

Thoroughly enjoyable...any Tyler book is a gift. Funny, poignant, generous, not shying away from death and disappointment but never doomy or overwrought

Anthony Cummins, Observer

A funny, joyful, brilliantly perceptive journey deep into one Baltimore family's foibles... An uncannily insightful novel that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives

Eastern Daily Press

An absorbing and perceptive family saga

Liz Earle Wellbeing Magazine

Any Tyler book is a gift. Funny, poignant, generous, not shying away from death and disappointment but never doomy or overwrought, it suggests there's always new light to be shed, whatever the situation, with just another turn of the prism

Anthony Cummins, Observer

This is Tyler at her most Tyler-ish . . . Critics who write her off as folksy might remember that folk tales, with their dark hearts, endure longer and cut deeper than more sophisticated forms. So will the work of this beloved teller of secret, ordinary truths

Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

In a short sentence of two, Tyler possesses the uncanny ability to home in on a particular detail, or a particular incident...and, through them, to reveal an entire world of thought and emotion... [a] beautiful novel of family life as it unfold over the years

Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

Clever and wise... French Braid is a family epic in miniature

Sameer Rahim, Daily Telegraph

Another masterclass by our greatest chronicler of family life . . . There are many authors today who try to emulate Anne Tyler's technique, but none of them comes close to the lightness of touch, the accuracy of her ear, or the profundity of her vision

Craig Brown, Mail