Daughters-In-Law by Joanna Trollope

Rachel loves being at the centre of her large family. She has devoted herself fiercely to bringing up her three sons, and continues to do so now that they are all grown up - and getting married.

In return, the boys remain deeply attached to her, and to their father, Anthony, and to their childhood home on the wide, bird haunted coast of Suffolk.

But when her youngest, Luke, gets married, Rachel finds that her control begins to slip away. Other women - her daughters-in-law -are usurping her position, and seem to be becoming more important to her boys than she is. She can no longer rely on her time-honoured role as provider and matriarch. Her daughters-in-law begin to do things in their individual and separate ways, and so, to her bewilderment and grief, do her husband and sons.

A crisis brings these subtle rifts to the surface, forcing the whole family to question old assumptions and find a new dynamic, if any of their relationships are going to survive.

352 pages