First published 1980
The Rosen family prepares for their weekly Sunday ritual, but beneath the surface of routine lies growing tension. Sarah Rosen watches her adult children drift from the customs that once bound them together. Her son David questions the relevance of old traditions in modern London, while daughter Ruth struggles between family expectations and her own desires for independence. As Sunday dinner becomes a battleground of generational conflict, each family member must decide what parts of their heritage to preserve and what to leave behind. The weekly gatherings that once provided comfort now expose the fractures in their relationships. Sarah fights to hold her family together while her children pull toward lives she barely recognizes. The story explores how families navigate the space between honoring the past and embracing an uncertain future.
Genres: fiction, family, literary-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, generational-conflict
Setting: London
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
201 pages · Hardcover · Summit Books