If there is a genre that is unjustifiably undervalued, it’s the one of family sagas.
Nothing is better than diving right into a book and being so engrossed in the lives of the characters that you start feeling like a part of their family and begin to miss them right after you turn the last page of the book.
Here are four families you’ll get to know and love as they pass down through the years. I guarantee you’ll be entertained by their tales and that they’ll make you laugh, cry, and sigh—either in relief or in suspense!
1. Pachinko | Min Jin Lee
Set in the early 1900, Pachinko tells the story of a Korean family, starting with Sunja, the daughter of a poor, crippled fisherman who falls in love with a wealthy stranger. However, when she finds out she’s pregnant, she also discovers that this stranger is actually married. Refusing to be bought, she accepts an offer of marriage from a sick minister.
With him, she will abandon her home and move to Japan, and reject every contact with the father of her son, setting off a dramatic saga that will last for many generations.
The title of the book, Pachinko, comes from a mechanical game very popular in Japan, and you’ll see it will play quite the role in the novel – pun intended.
My favourite quote: “Fill your mind with knowledge—it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you.”
2. 100 years of solitude | Gabriel García Márquez
The Buendía family lives in the town of Macondo. More precisely, they founded it, to create a place to hide and live in tranquillity. For years, Macondo had indeed stayed hidden and unconnected from the rest of the world, with the only exception of a group of gypsies, led by Melquíades, who became friend with the patriarch of our story, José Arcadio Buendía. But this utopic dream of a town could not stay hidden forever, and it was eventually exposed to the external world.
The chain of unfortunate events that will follow the Buendía family starts in that exact moment, and will last for generations to come, until the very end.
I’ll admit this is not an easy read, and will probably require a notebook to keep track of all the Joses and Aurelianos, but I promise if you read the first 30 pages or so, then you will be fall captive of Márquez prose and of his magical realism.
My favourite quote: “And both of them remained floating in an empty universe where the only everyday and eternal reality was love“
3. History, a Novel | Elsa Morante
This Italian masterpiece is a historical novel set in Rome during the years of WWII and its aftermath. While the novel actually revolves mainly around Ida Mancuso, the daughter of two teachers from the region of Calabria, it can be kind of considered a family saga, as it also tells the story of Ida’s parents and the one of Ida’s children, Nino and Giuseppe, nicknamed “Useppe”.
Morante wrote this novel 30 years after seeing firsthand how war impacted the ordinary people, and she narrates their daily troubles, moral struggles and their desperation masterfully. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, you won’t be disappointed by this novel and its excruciatingly realistic tales.
My favourite quote: “Man, by his very nature, tends to give himself an explanation of the world into which he is born. And this is what distinguishes him from the other species. Every individual, even the least intelligent, the lowest of outcasts, from childhood on gives himself some explanation of the world. And with it he manages to live. And without it, he would sink into madness.”
4. The house of the spirits | Isabel Allende
I know I have already dedicated a full post to this amazing book, but did I mention I absolutely love it? I guess I did…
Well, when it comes to family sagas, you cannot go wrong with The house of the Spirits. Through magical realism and an extraordinary prose, Allende unfolds the story of the del Valle-Trueba family by telling the story of the four women of this family, whose names are all linked to the concept of “light” in Spanish, and Esteban Trueba, a poor miner turned wealthy politician.
As I have already said, “The House of the Spirits” is a classic work will leave a lasting impression on your own hearts and thoughts – you’ll love it.
My favourite quote: “She believed that by giving problems a name they tended to manifest themselves, and then it was impossible to ignore them; whereas if they remained in the limbo of unspoken words, they could disappear by themselves, with the passage of time.“
So, did I convince you to try and give a chance to family saga? Let me know in the comment if I missed any you love, or if you liked at least one of the above!
Note: Some links in this article are connected to my Amazon Associates profile, which means I will earn a commission should you choose to proceed with a purchase.
