Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope

Our book club choice for February-March 2012 is Joanna Trollope's latest novel, Daughters-in-Law, described as "wonderfully observed" by The Times and "infallibly elegant" by Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph. Joanna answered your questions here.

Rachel has always loved being at the centre of her large family. She has fiercely devoted herself to her three sons all their lives and continues to do so even now they are all grown up. They are, of course, devoted to her - she and Anthony, their father, hold the family together at their big, beautiful, ramshackle house near the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk.

But when Luke, her youngest, gets married, Rachel finds that control is slipping away. Other people seem to be becoming more important to her children than she is, and she can no longer rely on her role as undisputed matriarch. A power struggle develops which can only end in unhappiness; her three daughters-in-law want to do things their own way and so, to her grief, do her sons...

This novel explores many of the themes we know all too well: love and control, holding on and letting go, the powerful pull of grandchildren and the often tricky relationship with daughters-in-law.

All of our free copies have now gone, unfortunately, but you can buy a copy from Amazon (or in ebook format if you'd prefer).

About Joanna Trollope

Joanna has been writing for over thirty years: first, a number of historical novels, now published under Caroline Harvey; then Britannia’s Daughters, a study of women in the British Empire; and, more recently, her enormously successful contemporary works of fiction, several of which have been televised. The Choir was her first contemporary novel, followed by A Village Affair and A Passionate Man. The Rector's Wife was her first number one bestseller, and made her into a household name.

Since then she has written eleven more contemporary novels: The Men and the Girls, A Spanish Lover, The Best of Friends, Next of Kin, Other People’s Children, Marrying the Mistress, Girl from the South and Brother and Sister, Second Honeymoon, Friday Nights and the newly published The Other Family. She lives in London, was appointed OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours List and is the Chair of Judges for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012.

You can also get an ebook or a copy of Daughters-in-Law on Amazon.

More praise for Daughters-in-Law:

"Trollope writes about family life with wit, intelligence and verve" - Guardian

"The legendary Ms Trollope triumphs yet again" - Heat

"Supremely sure of her material and purpose, compassionate but never sentimental" - The Sunday Times

"Infallibly elegant...All this lies beneath the sparkling, well groomed surface of a novel which could quite easily be read as a light diversion for an idle afternoon. But look more closely and something as grim as Greek tragedy is played out around the cosy family dinner table." - Jane Shilling, The Daily Telegraph

"A very superior work of women’s fiction...an exceedingly skilled analysis of the relationship between different generations of women and how the power shifts as the old, as they must, get old and the young move on...it is a story told beautifully." - Sunday Express

"The author's psychology, as always, is sound, the plotting secure and the pacing brisk and page-turning. Another winner." - Daily Mail

"Sociologically and psychologically as observant as ever." - The Spectator

"An intuitive and sympathetically observed piece of writing." - Good Housekeeping

"Trollope writes with customary compassion and humanity in this heartwarming and engaging novel." - Daily Express