Book Synopsis:
From the Polari Prize-winning author of IN AT THE DEEP END
When Lena buys DNA testing kits for her father Tom and her twin sister Alison, she thinks they’ll enjoy finding out where their ancestors come from, and what percentage Neanderthal they are. She has no idea the gift will blow her family apart.
Tom is forced to admit that he isn’t his daughters’ biological father: he and his late wife, Sheila, used a sperm donor. He’s terrified Lena and Alison will reject him, and desperate to win back their trust – whatever it takes.
Alison thinks DNA doesn’t matter. She and her wife are trying to start a family using donor sperm, too. To her, Tom is their dad, and that’s that.
But Lena becomes obsessed with tracking down their biological father. And when she discovers she has a half-brother – an actor with a blue tick on Instagram – she becomes obsessed with him, too…
From the author of the Polari Prize-winning In at the Deep End, this is a very funny and deeply moving novel about identity, donor conception and what it means to be a family.
My Review:
Nuclear Family is an emotional, touching and thought provoking read that I think would make a great book club read as there would be lots to discuss.
The story follows twins Alison and Lena, who find out at Christmas that they are donor conceived. The two girls have very different reactions to this news which causes a few problems to the previously very close knit family. I initially found Lena’s reaction a bit over the top and felt angry with her for dismissing the father that had raised her. However this reaction changed as the story continued and I actually ended up feeling a lot of sympathy for her. Alison and her wife are trying to conceive a baby through IVF which added a different element to the story. I thought it was very clever of the author to include this into the story as it helped give the reader more of an holistic view of donor conception. It was interesting to follow the two girls as they try to come to terms with thai news and it was fascinating to explore the argument of nature v nurture alongside them when determining what or who constituted a father.
I loved the vivid descriptions of the family that made me feel like I was a fly on the wall watching all the action unfold. The relationship between fathers and daughters was beautiful to witches and I loved seeing them try to support each other through the difficult times. I found it very poignant to follow Tom as he tries to figure out his role in the girls’ lives now and to try and carve out a life of his own now the girls are grown up. It made me tear up to see him struggle with his loneliness and to see his attempts to try and fit in. I often wished I could reach into the book and give him the huge hug I felt he needed.
This book had a great pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening which made the book very difficult to put down. The author lays bare the emotional impact of ivf and the need to find out who you are which made for very gripping but emotional reading at times. I soon felt so involved in the characters’ story, almost as if it was happening to me and I wanted to keep reading to find out how everything was resolved. I think I went through every emotion whilst reading, wanting to cry one moment but laughing out loud the next. This is the first book I’ve read by this author but I’m very interested to read more from her in the future.
Huge thanks to Indie thinking and Borough Press for sending me a copy of this book.
About The Author:
Kate Davies is a novelist, screenwriter and author of children’s books.
She is the author of two novels, Nuclear Family and In at the Deep End, which won the Polari Prize and was shortlisted for the Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction.
Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a children’s book editor for twelve years.
She lives in East London with her wife and son.
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