Nuclear Family was recommended in Red Magazine, and I was delighted to be granted an advance review copy by Net Galley. I’d heard high praise for Kate Davies’s previous book ‘In At The Deep End’, although haven’t yet read it myself, but I had high hopes for this too. Here’s the blurb:

“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.”

I really enjoyed this book. The chapter titles are a work of art before you even get into the content of the book itself! The storyline is modern, well written, funny, emotional – and really makes you think.

Whilst my husband and I have both done the DNA kits mentioned in the blurb and that feature as a key part of the book – ours didn’t reveal anything shocking, but I have had a conversation with someone who works with troubled families, who said that she could see them causing huge issues – exactly as happens in this book.

We’re also really lucky that we had 4 quick to conceive and successful pregnancies and births (even with a vasectomy and reversal between children 2 and 3 – that’s a whole other blog post!) but I appreciate we were incredibly fortunate – and the book looks at many different ways in which a family can be created. Having read the acknowledgements, it’s evident that a number of these different family structures are based upon the authors own experiences as a child and subsequently as a parent.

Whilst each of the characters I felt was at times a bit selfish – fundamentally they all love each other deeply. I also liked the fact that some non-traditional topics such as older people embarking on a new sexual relationship, and trans men carrying a child, are part of the supporting story arcs and not thrust front and centre, but discussed as being totally normal.

The book also doesn’t end with all of the elements of the story tied up in a neat bow – which would have been a total sell out to – so I’m pleased with that.

I also think this would be an interesting book to discuss at a book club if you’re that way inclined!

I’m every so slightly behind with my reviewing – and this came out last week, so if you like the sound of it you can order it right now!

Many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for my ARC.