The Family Fang

A unique and very funny novel in which art imitates life and life imitates art, in the most mysterious ways

‘This is the kind of novel you fall in love with: tender-hearted, wonder-filled, a world all its own’  Josh Weil, author of New Valley

‘Great art is difficult’ – that’s the motto of the family Fang.

The family consists of Caleb and Camille Fang (the parents), Annie (Child A) and Buster (Child B).

The family Fang create art: performance art, provocations, interventions – call it what you like. And many people certainly don’t call it ‘Art’.

But as Annie and Buster grow up, like all children, they find their parents’ behaviour an embarrassment. They refuse to take up their roles in these outrageous acts. They escape: Annie becomes an actor, a star in the world of indie filmmaking, and Buster pursues gonzo journalism, constantly on the trail of a good story. But when both their lives start to fall apart, there is nowhere left to go but home.

Meanwhile Caleb and Camille have been planning their most ambitious project yet and the children have no choice: like it or not, they will participate in one final performance. The family Fang’s magnum opus will determine what is ultimately more important: their family or their art.

‘The Family Fang is a comedy, a tragedy, and a tour-de-force examination of what it means to make art and survive your family.’ Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Bel Canto