“She couldn’t bear to think that their family was just another muddled, discontented, ordinary family.” Turning Tolstoy slightly aslant, this is Abby Whitshank, a grandmother in her seventies, living with her husband Red in Baltimore, in the house Red’s father built. So far, so familiar, but nothing about the Whitshanks is quite as it seems. The house, for example, which plays a major role, was built for a richer, classier family but Red’s dad, Junior, slyly manoeuvred his way into living in it, then never found acceptance in this upscale neighbourhood. The two Whitshank sons, Stem and Denny, are at loggerheads – but why is Denny so distant and difficult? And are the stories we tell ourselves about our families based on reality or on myth?Anne Tyler&rsq