My favorite is Possession by A.S. Byatt. I'm willing to be that the author does not see this book as a genealogy novel. But I do see it that way. It's a terrific meditation on recovering information. The characters learn so much, yet miss one important truth. The last scene gives me chills.

S.

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Sarah, ever since seeing your discussion I've been searching my brain for the title of a book I read a couple of years ago that was partly a biography of the author's parents, and partly a re-telling of the lives she wished they had lived, a kind of alternative biography. I finally found it: Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing.

I haven't read The Possession, but I just put a hold on it at the library. Thanks for the suggestion!
iI love this topic! I wrote a historical novel based on letters my grandmother gave me from her family who were trapped in Poland during WWII called Paper Children--An Immigrant's Legacy. It took me 5 years because the letters had to be translated from 3 different languages. I pieced together so many stories and I heard my great-grandmother's voice. It was a wonderful experience. I speak to book clubs and women's groups and bring some letters with me as well as her hat, gloves, crocheted purse, etc.
Marcia, your novel sounds fascinating! I'm definitely going to read it. What a treasure to be able to share your grandmother's legacy with young readers.
~ Lisa
"Don't be thrown off by the title," the person who recommended the movie Hideous Kinky said. She was right, the title alone is all about the love of words. Shortly after I read the book by Esther Freud on which the film is based, clearly a by autobiography inspired novel, as was the next, and the next, definitely a series of genealogical novels. And Freud's whole oeuvre highly recommended as that. Each time the author surprises the reader with once again another look at (to her) familiar materials, another p.o.v., another slant, but always that fascinating Freud family as source of her own creation. Got to love that!
I read the description you linked to, and this is now another book on my "to read" list. It sounds highly creative, which I always enjoy! Thank you, Judith.
Thanks for the information Sarah - this means I have to read the book! Nancy Duci Denofio
A few other books that are all at least inspired by family diaries are Jeannette Walls' Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, Michelle Hoover's The Quickening, and The BIrd Sisters, forthcoming by Rebecca Rasmussen.

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