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Summary
Summary
Joanna Trollope's style, her nuanced perception, and her sensitivity all have made her a bestselling favorite on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, in Next of Kin, she draws on what The New York Times Book Review praises as her ability "to capture far-flung perspectives with compassion" to portray a family grappling-together and individually-with the death of a loved one. Caro Meredith, originally from California, led the life of an English farmer's wife for more than twenty years. Yet after her death, her grieving husband, Robin, wonders how well he really knew her. But Robin is not the only one left vulnerable; his brother, parents, and Judy, his daughter and Caro's step-daughter, are all thrown by the absence of the woman who had become a central figure in their lives. As they each struggle to cope with Caro's death, Judy's friend Zoe arrives from London and brings with her hope for a new beginning. All recognize that she is a catalyst for change. Next of Kin is about outsiders and insiders, about travelers and settlers, about living on the land and living with yourself. It offers a perceptive, if unsettling, insight into the forces of change, resignation, and making your own luck. Above all, it is written with Trollope's superbly appealing blend of complexity and humanity.
Author Notes
Joanna Trollope was born in Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England on December 9, 1943. She graduated from Oxford University. She worked on Chinese affairs in the Foreign Office in London for two years, and then became a teacher. In 1980, she became a full-time author.
Her first books to be published were a number of historical novels written under the pen name Caroline Harvey. These were followed by Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire, a historical study of women in the British Empire. The Choir was her first contemporary novel. Her other works include A Village Affair, A Passionate Man, The Rector's Wife, Girl from the South, The Soldier's Wife, and Balancing Act. She was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Among bestselling British author Trollope's enviable skills are her ability to create characters with believable flaws, and to ponder plausible life situations in which the best possible outcome is merely pragmatic, rather than romantic, and tinged with rue as well as guarded hope. In her ninth novel (after Marrying the Mistress), the theme is the inevitability of change and the possibility of growth. The Meredith family, for generations farmers in the rural English midlands, are now beset by financial problems in a changing economy. The book opens with the funeral of Caro Meredith, a transplanted American who never adjusted to being a farm wife. Her husband, taciturn Robin, is less bereaved than relieved, since Caro stopped loving him long ago, but their adopted daughter, Judy, has always taken her mother's part and bitterly resents both her father and his dairy farm. Robin's parents live nearby, raising crops on their own acreage, and so does Robin's troubled brother, Joe, and his needy wife, Lindsay. Trollope does an excellent job of describing the dynamics of farm life, both the unremitting labor and the encroachment of modern techniques. As usual, she conveys the nuances of marriage, in which lack of communication can breed tragedy. After another family death and Robin's unexpected attraction to Judy's flaky London flatmate, Zoe, the novel becomes a crucible of change, realistically describing how brave people pull themselves together and move on. In addition to crafting an absorbing narrative, Trollope charms with her depiction of several young children, whose speech and behavior are captured with clarity and endearing fidelity. (July) Forecast: Trollope's devoted readers are rarely disappointed, and this new novel will add to her reputation for writing psychologically nuanced fiction that's commercially viable. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The popular Trollope (Marrying the Mistress, 2000, etc.) again deftly profiles ordinary men and women learning to adapt as their lives are disrupted by change and loss. Life on the Meredith family's two farms has been pretty predictable. They're not the most beautiful spreads in England, but they've offered solace to Robin, who runs Tideswell, and younger brother Joe, along with parents Harry and Dilys, who farm Dean's Place. But this seeming serenity is, as usual, only superficial. When Caro, Robin's American wife, dies from a brain tumor, the thin fabric of the Merediths' lives disintegrates. Judy, adopted daughter of Caro and Robin, is angry with her father because she feels he mistreated her mother, seeming cool and indifferent. Robin has his own sorrows, as well as financial worries, and Joe, long depressed, feels that with Caro gone he can no longer escape his demons. The pace of events accelerates when Zoe, a photographer who shares a flat with Judy in London, comes down for a weekend, then moves in and becomes Robin's lover. Soon he's telling her about his loveless marriage, and she's also befriending Dilys-a friendship that comforts the crusty matriarch when Joe commits suicide, Harry has an accident, and all learn that they may have to leave the farm. Robin has large debts too (farming is not cheap), and Trollope makes a quiet, heartfelt plea for those who love the land and till it. The Merediths must adapt if they're to survive, Dilys ruefully concludes: change, together with loss and growth, is life. This would all be more compelling if Caro and Zoe didn't both seem more like necessary plot catalysts than memorable characters; Caro's influence on the Merediths never becomes clear, and Zoe is a very sketchy figure. Still, despite its flaws: a refreshingly unsentimental story about people trying, not always successfully, to do what's right.
Booklist Review
A popular British novelist departs from her usual setting of middle-class locales to frame her latest novel on a family farm in the Midlands, among the solid working class, an appropriate setting for the theme of change and resistance to change to be worked out. The story opens with the funeral of Judy's mother. Caro was an American who came to the area by way of an unusual path and never quite fit in, but even after her death she remains a strong influence. Judy's father chose long ago to be a dairy rather than crop farmer like his father and brother. "Things are done the way they'sve been done because that's the way it's done" could indeed be the family motto. Into this picture comes freethinking and independent Zoe, Judy's new roommate in the city. Her presence not only shakes foundations but also manages to rock everyone to his or her core. The abrupt, tidy conclusion brings a new order. Even though this novel is not up to Trollope's usual standards, her fans will be satisfied. --Danise Hoover
Library Journal Review
Readers of Trollope (Marrying the Mistress, Other People's Children) have come to expect the unexpected, and this latest novel is no exception. It begins grimly, with the funeral of Caro Meredith, wife of a dairy farmer in the English Midlands. Caro's death is merely the prelude, however, to a series of shattering events for those she left behind from husband Robin and daughter Judy, a magazine "subeditor," to brother-in-law Joe and his wife, Lyndsay, to Robin's parents, Dilys and Harry. The arrival of Judy's unconventional roommate, Zoe, brings a measure of openness to this emotionally closed family and gives Robin some small amount of the love that he lacked throughout his marriage. Nevertheless, despite the transformative nature of tragedy, particularly for Judy, who chucks her London life, and Lyndsay, both of whom become farmers, the novel lacks the leavening that characterizes most of Trollope's work, and some readers may find it heavy going. Buy where Trollope is popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/01.] Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
