On the day Lady Diana married Prince Charles, Rebecca’s mother locked herself in the bathroom of 24 Beech Drive and never came out. Was it because the holiday dinner didn’t turn out just right? Because Rebecca’s grandmother married her first cousin? Or was she simply, unalterably unhappy? According to Rebecca’s scientist husband, our genes control our fate, but Rebecca isn’t so sure. Leaving everything to science allows little room for the events that shape our lives.

Looking for clues in a family history filled with three generations of mistaken marriages, dubiously fathered children, and hand-me-down sayings, Rebecca discovers she is just one piece of a family history that is still unraveling—and she wonders if events of the past are destined to repeat themselves in her own child’s future.

The intertwining relationships of mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and husbands and wives go to the heart of The Family Tree as it transcends the story of one woman and her family to become an indelible and resonant novel in which author Carole Cadwalladr ponders what truly makes us who we are.