I Know This Much Is True
by Wally Lamb | 
When I Found You
by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith | 
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen | 
Saturday
by Ian McEwan | 
House of Sand and Fog
by Andre Dubus III | 
A Thousand Acres
by Jane Smiley | 
Amsterdam
by Ian McEwan | 
Little Children
by Tom Perrotta | 
Digging to America
by Anne Tyler | 
One True Thing
by Anna Quindlen | 
The Cement Garden
by Ian McEwan | 
A Map of the World
by Jane Hamilton | 
The Shadow Girl
by Misty Mount | 
The Music of Chance
by Paul Auster | 
Pay It Forward
by Catherine Ryan Hyde | 
Back When We Were Grownups
by Anne Tyler | 
A Patchwork Planet
by Anne Tyler | 
Amy and Isabelle
by Elizabeth Strout | 
Ladder of Years
by Anne Tyler |
"The Middlesteins had me from its very first pages" - Jonathan Franzen Edie and Richard have been married for over thirty years, living in the Chicago suburbs. Everyone who knew them-even their own children Robin and Benny-agreed that Edie was a tough woman to love, but no one expected Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition. Edie is fifty-nine years old, she weighs 300 pounds, and her doctors have told her she'll die if she doesn't stop eating. As Richard is shut out by the family and seeks solace in the world of internet dating, Robin is dragged back from the city and forced to rebuild a relationship with her mother. Meanwhile Benny and his neurotic wife Rachelle try to take control of the situation. But have any of them stopped to think about whether Edie really wants to be saved? Written with sly humour, warmth and great insight, The Middlesteins is a novel about what it means to be part of a family.