The Family Way [Hardcover]

Praise for Man and Boy:

‘Wistful, touching and funny, it looks back at the glory days of the family without losing hope for the future. In the end, it is a deeply touching book: a love letter to a son from his father, and to a father from his son’ Mail on Sunday

‘One of the finest books published this year… Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns’ Express

Praise for One for my Baby:

‘One For My Baby is stylish, polished, complex and it really gets its teeth into the big issues of sex, love, family and friendship.’ The Mirror

Praise for Man and Boy:

‘Wistful, touching and funny, it looks back at the glory days of the family without losing hope for the future. In the end, it is a deeply touching book: a love letter to a son from his father, and to a father from his son’ Mail on Sunday

‘One of the finest books published this year… Hilarious and tear-jerking in turns’ Express

Praise for One for my Baby:

‘One For My Baby is stylish, polished, complex and it really gets its teeth into the big issues of sex, love, family and friendship.’ The Mirror

IT SHOULD BE THE MOST NATURAL THING IN THE WORLD

It should be the most natural thing in the world. But in Tony Parsons’ latest bestseller, three couples discover that Mother Nature can be one hell of a bitch.

A hard-working trainee doctor, Megan Jewell finds herself accidentally pregnant. She wants a baby one day – but God, not now! Can Megan really bring a baby into the world when she can hardly look after herself?

Megan’s happily married sister Jessica wants a baby – immediately. But her husband Paolo is worried. He loves his wife and he sees what a baby is doing to his brother’s marriage.

Cat Jewell, the oldest sister, is scarred by the memory of their mother walking out. She wants a baby – maybe. But what’s a girl to do when the man in her life has seen and done it all before? Rory already has a teenage son. The last thing he wants is to start changing nappies.

Tony Parsons shows us once again the dilemmas and decisions that confront men today.

Modern-day relationships are tested in this very realistic, contemporary story about procreation and new life.

I wanted to write a book that covered the waterfront of procreation - unwanted pregnancy, pregnancy that is desperately wanted but just doesn’t happen, and the uncertainty of a woman not knowing if she wants children or not, not knowing if she wants them with this particular man, and not knowing if it will happen.

I think that the subject matter of The Family Way - making babies, or not - is one of the great modern subjects, and I wanted to address it. There were times when I felt it I couldn’t do it as well as I wanted to - luckily, women will talk to you about this stuff. Women will talk to you about pregnancy, abortion, and all the rest of it. A woman would say to me, "What you have to understand is that pregnancy is like flying - the difficult bits are take off and landing," and I knew I was being given the raw material I needed.

I also watched my son and my daughter being born, so I do have some modest experience in the field. But The Family Way is a book that I could not have written unless all different kinds of women had been prepared to open their hearts and tell me their stories. Some of those stories were incredibly uplifting and moving, and some of them would break your heart.

The book is also about men - the joy of becoming a father, the terror of becoming a father, and all the emotions in-between. In The Family Way my male characters speak more honestly about love and sex and women than they have ever done in the past. But in the end The Family Way is a book about three sisters.

Megan, the youngest sister, is a trainee GP who breaks up with her long-term boyfriend and gets pregnant from a drunken one-night stand. Should she have a baby with a man she doesn’t love?

Jessica, the middle sister, the real beauty of the family, who is in an idyllic marriage but can’t get pregnant because, she believes, of a teenage abortion. Can a marriage be truly complete if it doesn’t have children?

And Cat, the eldest sister, who practically brought her sisters up after their parents’ marriage broke-up. Cat, who is a high-powered career woman who never thought she wanted children, and who is going out with an older man who has done the whole family thing and is not anxious to do it all again. Can a woman be truly fulfilled without having a baby?

There were times when I thought writing about this stuff was professional suicide. But in the end, I am more pleased with The Family Way than anything I have ever written. Writing the book has taught me that a writer has to stretch himself or herself, and take a few chances sometime.

I am proud of The Family Way, and I hope my millions of loyal, lovely readers will think it is the best thing I have done since Man and Boy - and maybe ever. It is a story that, one way or another, touches all of our lives.

TONY PARSONS

IT SHOULD BE THE MOST NATURAL THING IN THE WORLD

Paulo loves Jessica. He thinks that together they are complete - a family of two.
But Jessica can't be happy until she has a baby, and the baby stubbornly refuses to come. Can a man and a woman ever really be a family of two?

Megan doesn't love her boyfriend anymore. After a one-night stand with an Australian beach bum, she finds that even a trainee doctor can slip up on the family planning.
Should you bring a child into the world if you don't love its father?

Cat loves her life. After bringing up her two younger sisters, all she craves is freedom. Her older boyfriend has done the family thing before and is in no rush to do it all again. But can a modern woman really find true happiness without ever being in the family way?

Three sisters. Three couples. Two pregnancies. Six men and women struggling with sex, love and the meaning of family.

And one more bitter-sweet bestseller from the author of MAN AND BOY.

Tony Parsons is the author of Man and Boy , winner of the Book of the Year prize. His subsequent novels – One For My Baby, Man and Wife, The Family Way, Stories We Could Tell and My Favourite Wife – were all bestsellers. He lives in London.