My favorite Anne Tyler novels often read as interconnected short stories--her latest is in that category. I've already begun to recommend French Braid to friends and will certainly purchase it both for the library and my own personal collection.

Nobody writes families like Anne Tyler. In her 24th novel, the forthcoming French Braid due out in March 2022, Tyler once again explores the inner lives of various members of the Garrett family. Tracing their lives through the latter half of the 20th century and into our 'pandemic present' as the jacket copy explains, Anne Tyler delivers quite possibly her best novel to date: a powerful meditation on the small things that make up a life and the impactful moments that shape the trajectory of our futures.

In the summer of 1959, the Garretts take their first (and last) family vacation. They stay at a lakeside cabin where each member of the family occupies themselves with their own entertainment. Whether its painting for the mother, Mercy, or obsessing over the neighbor boy for middle child Lily, the family weaves in and out of each others lives—not only across these few days but through the next 60 years.

There's nothing extraordinary about this family or their vacation. But as with any Anne Tyler novel, the consequences of small choices, or even the interpretation of one family members actions, has profound and lasting consequences. These feelings reverberate through time and space, showing their effects from various points-of-view through the following chapters.

What I loved so much about this novel echoed a lot of what I loved about Tyler's 2015 novel A Spool of Blue Thread. We start in a near-present day chapter, the jump back to the earliest days of the family's history, slowly moving from character to character and through decades in subsequent chapters. Events are reexamined through new eyes, and the reader gets to fill in the gaps themselves. It makes for a page turning and engaging read from Tyler who tends to focus on the humdrum existence of Baltimoreans.

Of course you can expect empathy and pathos from Tyler's prose. She exquisitely crafts characters that feel SO human and so real, they nearly jump off the page. As frustrating and messy their lives are at times, the Garretts come to life and inspire laughter and tears, outrage and sympathy. I mean, who else but Anne Tyler can make something like a salmon loaf take on such meaning?! Once you read it, you'll see what I mean.

All in all, of the 20 Anne Tyler novels I have read, this has to be my favorite; at the very least, one of the most memorable and enjoyable reading experiences since I first picked up her work with A Spool of Blue Thread back in 2015. So eager for everyone to get their hands on this one next year! For readers new to Tyler's work, this will be a great introduction; and for those who are long-time fans like myself, you surely won't be disappointed.