One City One Book Recommendations: Families

If you run a One City, One Book program and are looking for stories about families, we’ve got you covered! 

For even more recommendations, check out this post and this Edelweiss catalog.

THE SINGER SISTERS by Sarah Seltzer
9781250907660
Trade paperback available 8/5/25

Two generations of a folk-rock dynasty collide over art, love, longing, and family secrets in this captivating and poignant debut.

A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL by T. Kingfisher
9781250244062
Trade paperback available 7/15/25

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes A Sorceress Comes to Call—a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm’s “The Goose Girl,” rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic, now in paperback.

STATE OF PARADISE by Laura van den Berg
9781250390516
Trade paperback available 7/8/25

A sticky, rain-soaked reckoning with the elusive nature of selfhood and storytelling, Laura van den Berg’s novel is an intricate and page-turning whirlwind. With inimitable control and thrilling style, van den Berg reaches deep into the void and returns with a story far stranger than either reality or fiction.

THE MANICURIST’S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Susan Lieu
9781250835055
Trade paperback available 4/29/35

Susan Lieu faces her family’s harrowing story: Vietnamese refugees who open two nail salons, well on their way to the American Dream, only to lose their inimitable matriarch after a routine plastic surgery operation goes horribly awry.

TWICE LIVED by Joma West
9781250810373
Trade paperback available 3/11/25

Torn between two families and two lives, a troubled teen must come to terms with losing half their world.

THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by Amal El-Mohtar
9781250341082
Novella available 3/4/25

The hugely anticipated solo debut of New York Times bestselling author and Hugo Award winner Amal El-Mohtar, a story of two sisters separated by worlds, desires, and even death, who never let go of their love.

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez
9781250817426
Trade paperback available now

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez reveals her experience as the U.S. born daughter of immigrants and what happened when, at fifteen, her parents were forced back to Mexico in this captivating and tender memoir.

LISTEN TO YOUR SISTER by Neena Viel
9781250906328
Trade paperback available now

Razor-sharp, wildly imaginative, breathlessly harrowing, and utterly unforgettable, Neena Viel’s debut is a hilarious and terrifying speculative tale of the nightmares that haunt us, and the deep, powerful love that can tie family together.

FAMILY FAMILY by Laurie Frankel
9781250236821
Trade paperback available now

Not all adoption stories are filled with pain and regret. A propulsive, sharply funny and strikingly tender novel from New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel.

MERCURY by Amy Jo Burns
9781250908582
Trade paperback available now

A clarion-hearted and capacious new novel from Amy Jo Burns, MERCURY is the story of a family of roofers striving for stability in a hardworking, blue-collar town, and the one woman who becomes their beating heart.

ABOVE THE SALT by Katherine Vaz
9781250873828
Trade paperback available now

An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America.

KING OF THE ARMADILLOS by Wendy Chin-Tanner
9781250843029
Trade paperback available now

A novel about family, love, and belonging, set against the backdrops of 1950s New York City and Louisiana, following one young man’s quest to survive an often misunderstood disease, and find love, music, and himself, in the process.

THE BEE STING by Paul Murray
9781250338259
Trade paperback available now

Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.

AMAZING GRACE ADAMS by Fran Littlewood
9781250857002
Trade paperback available now

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink—who finally pushes back.

WHILE YOU WERE OUT: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger
9781250877031
Trade paperback available now

From award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger, a searing memoir of a family besieged by mental illness, as well as an incisive exploration of the systems that failed them and a testament to the love that sustained them.

PIECES OF BLUE by Holly Goldberg Sloan
9781250847317
Trade paperback available now

From New York Times bestselling author Holly Goldberg Sloan, a compelling and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub about a family trying to restore a ramshackle beachside motel and their own lives.

THE CROW VALLEY KARAOKE CHAMPIONSHIPS by Ali Bryan
9781250863454
Trade paperback available now

In this darkly comedic, fast-paced ride through an unforgettable small town, five residents with drastically different goals for the night will collide into, conspire with, and aid one another as they scramble to make it successfully through the evening under the scrutinizing watch of neighbors.

THE HOUSE OF FORTUNE by Jessie Burton
9781639731626
Trade paperback available now

Alive with the magic of eighteenth-century Amsterdam, a bestselling, bewitching historical novel about one young woman learning to set her own life’s course despite family and cultural pressure, from New York Times bestselling author Jessie Burton.

THE CONNELLYS OF COUNTY DOWN by Tracey Lange
9781250865380
Trade paperback available now

From New York Times bestselling author Tracey Lange comes a story about fierce family loyalty, good intentions gone awry, and the consequences of improbable love.

RETURN TO VALETTO by Dominic Smith
9781250335777
Trade paperback available now

Dominic Smith’s RETURN TO VALETTO is a riveting journey into one family’s dark past, a page-turning excavation of the ruins of history, and a testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kinds even time.

BEYOND THAT, THE SEA by Laura Spence-Ash
9781250854391
Trade paperback available now

A sweeping, tenderhearted love story that tells the story of two families living through World War II on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and the shy, irresistible young woman who will call them both her own.

KANTIKA by Elizabeth Graver
9781250869838
Trade paperback available now

A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home.

NIGHT’S EDGE by Liz Kerin
9781250835697
Trade paperback available now

NIGHT’S EDGE takes a bite out of vampire lore in this blood-soaked novel about the darkest secrets we hide and how monstrous we can be to the ones we love most.

A COUNTRY YOU CAN LEAVE by Asale Angel-Ajani
9781250321664
Trade paperback available now

A gorgeous, scathing debut novel following the turbulent relationship of a Black, biracial teen and her ferocious Russian mother, struggling to survive in the California desert.

WEYWARD by Emilia Hart
9781250842725
Trade paperback available now

A riveting debut about witchcraft and female intuitive powers, told over five centuries through three connected women, for fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Penner.

PROMISES OF GOLD by José Olivarez
9781250878472
Trade paperback available now

A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural is birthed, shaped, and complicated by the invisible forces of gender, capitalism, religion, migration, and so on.

MAAME by Jessica George
9781250853738
Trade paperback available now

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. It explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.

WESTERN LANE by Chetna Maroo
9781250321930
Trade paperback available now

An indelible coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s first novel captures the ordinary and annihilates it with beauty. WESTERN LANE is a valentine to innocence, to the closeness of sisterhood, to the strange ways we come to know ourselves and each other.

OUR CROOKED HEARTS by Melissa Albert
9781250826381
Trade paperback available now

Secrets. Lies. Super-bad choices. Witchcraft. This is OUR CROOKED HEARTS, a darkly gripping contemporary fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of THE HAZEL WOOD, Melissa Albert. Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.

WILD SPACES by S L Coney
9781250866837
Trade paperback available now

Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life meets Lovecraftian horror in this foreboding, sensual coming-of-age story in which the corrosive nature of family secrets assumes eldritch proportions.

THE BOOK EATERS by Sunyi Dean
9781250810205
Trade paperback available now

THE BOOK EATERS is a contemporary fantasy debut. It’s a story of motherhood, sacrifice, and hope; of queer identity and learning to accept who you are; of gilded lies and the danger of believing the narratives others create for you.

OTHER NAMES FOR LOVE by Taymour Soomro
9781250872883
Trade paperback available now

A charged, hypnotic debut novel about a boy’s life-changing summer in rural Pakistan: a story of fathers, sons, and the consequences of desire.

THIS GOLDEN STATE by Marit Weisenberg
9781250786289
Trade paperback available now

A propulsive, emotional novel following a family on the run, a restless teenage daughter hungry for the truth, and the simple DNA test that threatens their carefully crafted world.

MA AND ME: A Memoir by Putsata Reang
9781250867124
Trade paperback available now

In her startling memoir, Putsata Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, MA AND ME is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.

NOTES ON YOUR SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE by Alison Espach
9781250871442
Trade paperback available now

Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, NOTES ON YOUR SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.

THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah
9781250178619
Trade paperback available now

A testament to hope, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit to survive adversity, THE FOUR WINDS is an indelible portrait of America and the American dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

BROTHERS ON THREE: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana by Abe Streep
9781250210692
Trade paperback available now

BROTHERS ON THREE is not simply a story about high school basketball, about state championships and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood, finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

OLGA DIES DREAMING by Xochitl Gonzalez
9781250786180
Trade paperback available now

A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots­, all in the wake of Hurricane Maria

KIN: A Memoir by Shawna Kay Rodenberg
9781635579345
Trade paperback available now

A heart stopping memoir of a wrenching Appalachian girlhood and a multilayered portrait of a misrepresented people, from Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award winner Shawna Kay Rodenberg.

ONE TWO THREE by Laurie Frankel
9781250236791
Trade paperback available now

From the New York Times bestselling author of THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS IS comes a timely, topical novel about love and family that will make you laugh and cry…and laugh again.

SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER by Ashley C. Ford
9781250203229
Trade paperback available now

One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the ever looming absence of her incarcerated father and the path we must take to both honor and overcome our origins.

CROSSING THE LINE: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport that Changed Their Lives Forever by Kareem Rosser
9781250837165
Trade paperback available now

This is the story of bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and forging a better future that comes from overcoming impossible odds.

THE HOUSE UPTOWN by Melissa Ginsburg
9781250784209
Trade paperback available now

An emotional coming-of-age novel about a young girl who goes to live with her eccentric grandmother in New Orleans after the death of her mother.

THE HOUSE OF RUST by Khadiji Abdalla Bajaber
9781644450680
Trade paperback available now

The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father.

SOMEWHERE IN THE UNKNOWN WORLD: A Collective Refugee Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
9781250296856
Trade paperback available now

In Yang’s exquisite, necessary telling, these fourteen stories for refugee journeys restore history and humanity to America’s strangers and redeem its long tradition of welcome.

DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz
9781250205940
Trade paperback available now

In the vein of ANOTHER BROOKLYN and AMERICANAH, a novel about a Dominican teenager’s arranged marriage and immigration to New York City, set in the 1960s and inspired by the author’s mother.

MAGIC FOR LIARS by Sarah Gailey
9781250174628
Trade paperback available now

A darkly enchanting debut novel from the award-winning Sarah Gailey, perfect for fans of Charlie Jane Anders and Megan Abbott, following the harrowing search for a killer at a private academy for mages hidden in modern-day Northern California.

MIDDLEGAME by Seanan McGuire
9781250234209
Trade paperback available now

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in this standalone fantasy

RIOT BABY by Tochi Onyebuchi
9781250214751
Novella available now

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

THE NIGHT TIGER by Yangsze Choo
9781250175465
Trade paperback available now

THE NIGHT TIGER draws us into a world of servants and masters, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzlingly ambitious, propulsive novel is the intimate coming of age of a boy and a girl, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.