French Braid: A novel

Alice, Lily, and David Garrett grow up as most siblings do, often squabbling and competing but also commiserating about their parents, Mercy and Robin. When they reach adulthood, however, they and their parents find themselves at a distance from one another–not exactly not speaking, but no longer on familiar terms. Alice, the solid, reliable sister, never accepts Lily’s spontaneous, provocative lifestyle; Mercy, once her nest is empty, prioritizes her painting and never speaks openly about the new life she’s building apart from Robin; and David, never one to keep in touch, all but disappears as he builds a family of his own. Years go by; eventually, Alice, Lily, and David’s own children won’t even reliably recognize one another in a train station.

What leads the Garrett family to grow apart? What did Mercy and Robin do to create a culture of silence and mystery within relationships that should be intimate? Tyler examines pivotal moments in the Garrett family across more than fifty years, teasing out the quiet rifts and disappointments whose impact intensifies as time goes on. Culminating in the present day, when the pandemic lockdown echoes literally the isolation the Garretts have always felt, French Braid explores the power of things unsaid–and the simultaneous strength and precariousness of familial foundations.