A new novel from a beloved classic. Warm, slightly ironic, insightful. This is again a journey into the world of an ordinary family. From the 1950s, when a sparkling red Chevrolet honks outside the window, to the present day, pupated in a pandemic. In the summer of 1959, the Garretts go on their first and last family vacation. They hardly ever leave their rented cottage, but in a sense they have never been so far apart. After that trip, everything in the family is unnoticed, but everyone begins to move away from each other more confidently. Mercy can hardly resist the itch - she wants to become an artist so badly. But who then will take care of the house and cook dinners for her husband Robin? Her daughters, level-headed Alice and boy-crazy Lily, are completely different from each other and do not find a common language. Their younger brother David, having left to study, almost breaks ties with the family. And yet something connects them all, despite all the disagreements and misunderstandings, something elusive. And each member of this seemingly disconnected family influences the lives of everyone else. Because family is something deeper than just family relationships, family is like a French braid: you think that you have escaped from your relatives, but it is impossible to free yourself from them, they, like the curls of a loose braid, are still intertwined. Full of love for people, of hope, joy mixed with bitterness, "French Braid" is a classic Anne Tyler story. An amazingly insightful novel about the abyss of family, about the impossibility of freeing ourselves from those who love us.