THE FAMILY SHIP by Sonja Yoerg - Review & Giveaway

 

Tolstoy wrote the often quoted phrase, "all happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  In Sonja Yoerg's novel, THE FAMILY SHIP (LakeUnionPublishing) the family is under great deal of distress and one of the daughters who has suffered trauma herself is determined to keep the family together. Mauve and Navy Veteran, Arthur Vergennes are the parents of nine children, with the tenth on its way.

It's Chesapeake Bay, 1980.The Vergennes have purchased a house, with a dry-docked oyster boat on the property. They turn it into a make-believe destroyer named the USS Nepenthe. On Saturdays, it's the center of family time when the children play and learn how to be responsible.

But tragedy strikes when the oldest son, Jude leaves, and Mauve dies following a miscarriage. The eldest daughter, Virgil is sexually assaulted when she's thirteen and the family has never fully healed. Her father refuses to let her go to college.

THE FAMILY SHIP explores controlling relationships and whether or not a family can withstand trauma. Usually, they either become stronger or fall apart. The chapters alternate between the many characters. I got lost keeping them straight for a bit at the beginning. What Sonja does best is dig inside every character revealing their positive characteristics and flaws. We readers can't help but recognize ourselves. 

THE FAMILY SHIP will be published tomorrow.

I'm a first-generation American, raised in Stowe, Vermont. My father taught skiing and tennis. My mother had been a school teacher and encouraged my sister, my brother and me to read and read and read. It stuck.

As a teenager, I waitressed at the Trapp Family Lodge to earn my college tuition. Maria Von Trapp gave me a cuckoo clock for my sixteenth birthday!

I earned my B.S. in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and my Ph.D. in Biological Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley.

(Learn more about my career in animal behavior and about my book on animal intelligence, CLEVER AS A FOX. )

I started writing full-time when my daughters were heading to college. My husband and I recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area (the setting for my debut novel) to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The background photo for this website is the view from our new property. It's a lot like Vermont. We have been remodeling a 1920s farmhouse, and I've posted some photos here.

www.sonjayoerg.com

Thanks to Sonja we have one signed copy to giveaway. Just tell us what your favorite novel about family is. We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck.

GIVEAWAY: USA only please.

To purchase THE FAMILY SHIP