In the Family Way - Paperback

by Laney Katz Becker (Author)

"Bursts with the complexity, drama, and warmth of Call the Midwife."--Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and Wreck

Set in the 1960s before Roe, a poignant and powerful novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship among a group of suburban housewives--and a fifteen-year-old unwed mother--who help one another navigate their personal challenges, their marriages, and their pregnancies...both wanted and unwanted.

In 1965 America, women can't have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal.

Every Tuesday, a group of suburban housewives share advice and confidences at their weekly card game. When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor's wife, discovers she's pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca's suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who's never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, and then leave to have her own baby--agreeing never to contact the family again.

But things quickly get complicated. Lily not only opened her home to the teenager, she's opened her heart. Meanwhile, Becca, who is pregnant with her fourth, devises a scheme to get a legal, therapeutic abortion; and Lily's sister, Rose, discovers the man she married isn't who he purported to be, and turns to Lily and her husband for help.

Moving and atmospheric, In the Family Way captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they struggle with their own complex feelings about being wives, mothers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.