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Family Family: A Novel
by Laurie Frankel

Published: 2024-01-23T00:0
Hardcover : 400 pages
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“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?”

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward ...

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Introduction

“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?”

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do — she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help – and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother…,

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated.

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Discussion Questions

From the publisher:

1. Family Family has interweaving timelines. How did you see the present-day timeline piece together with the past timeline of India as a teenager and young adult? If the story was set in chronological order, how would that change your feelings of the book?

2. There were two major life decisions that India made as a teenager and again as a young adult. How do these decisions early in India’s life affect her as an adult?

3. Fig and Jack, with the help of Bex, teamed together to get Lewis to come to California. How powerful are these children in, essentially, tricking their parents into showing up at India’s house? As a parent, how can you imagine India’s feelings when she saw her four children, their parents, and her past loves all in the same room?

4. The story tells several romantic interests of India, but in the end, she does not pursue her past loves. Do you wish the story ended differently? Why or why not?

5. At the end of the audiobook, there is a bonus conversation between the author and the narrator where they discuss Patti’s relationship with Broadway and voicing India’s story, as well as Laurie’s inspiration for the book. What did you learn about the creation of Family Family?

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by Janine L. (see profile) 03/01/24

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