10+ Multigenerational Family Saga Books from Read With Jenna Book Club
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If you’re looking for novels that follow families across generations, these stories belong on your reading list.
One thing I’ve always loved about multigenerational family saga novels is how deeply they explore the complex dynamics of families. Instead of focusing on a single moment or character, these stories follow several generations, revealing how relationships, secrets, and difficult choices ripple across time.
In these kinds of stories, the past never truly stays buried. A grandmother’s decision, a hidden letter, or a forgotten truth can quietly influence the future of an entire family, shaping the lives of children and grandchildren decades later.
Over the years, the Read With Jenna Book Club has chosen several unforgettable novels that explore family legacies, generational trauma, and the complicated bonds that bind families together.
If you’re looking for stories that capture the emotional depth of family history and the connections between generations, these Read With Jenna picks are a wonderful place to start.
Happy Reading!
Memorable Multigenerational Family Sagas from Read With Jenna
Cursed Daughters
by Oyinkan Braithwaite
November ’25 Pick
Seen as the reincarnation of her cousin and raised under a powerful family curse, Eniiyi Falodun grows up believing her life is destined for heartbreak. But when she falls in love and begins to question the fate passed down through generations of Falodun women, she starts uncovering dangerous secrets hidden in her family’s past. Now Eniiyi must decide whether to accept the story written for her—or rewrite it on her own terms.
My Other Heart
by Emma Nanami Strenner
August ’25 Pick
Seventeen years after Mimi’s young daughter disappears without a trace, best friends Kit and Sabrina are on the brink of adulthood, each searching for their place in the world. While Kit’s trip to Tokyo awakens a new love and a deeper connection to her past, Sabrina—guided by a bold mentor—begins confronting the questions she has long avoided. When Mimi’s search finally crosses their paths, long-buried truths come to light.
A Family Matter
by Claire Lynch
June ’25 Pick
In 1982, Dawn’s life is transformed by an unexpected and consuming love that challenges everything she’s built. Bound by marriage and motherhood, she makes a choice that leaves lasting ripples across generations. Forty years later, Heron faces a devastating diagnosis and struggles to tell Maggie the truth he’s hidden for decades. As buried secrets resurface, a family must confront the past to find a path forward.
Swift River
by Essie Chambers
June ’24 Pick
Growing up in a small Massachusetts town, Diamond Newberry feels like an outsider in her own life. Her father disappeared years ago, leaving behind questions that still haunt her family. When a letter finally arrives revealing pieces of his past, Diamond begins to uncover a deeper story about identity and belonging. What she learns connects her not only to her father but to generations before him.
Real Americans
by Rachel Khong
May 24 Pick
Spanning several decades, this novel follows a Chinese American family as their lives intersect with ambition, identity, and scientific discovery. From a struggling artist in New York to the child she raises in a very different world, the story explores the complicated choices that shape a family’s future. As secrets emerge across generations, the characters must confront what they inherit—and what they choose to leave behind.
The Waters
by Bonnie Jo Campbell
January 24 Pick
In rural Michigan, the lives of several generations of women unfold along the banks of a powerful river. The family matriarch is both feared and revered, while younger generations struggle to escape the weight of their inheritance. As the women confront love, loss, and survival, the landscape becomes part of their story.
Save for Later
Banyan Moon
by Thao Thai
July 23 Pick
Three Vietnamese American women—grandmother Minh, mother Huong, and daughter Ann—are brought together after a sudden death in the family. As they sort through the belongings left behind, long-hidden secrets begin to surface. Each generation has carried its own burdens and misunderstandings. Through their shared history, they slowly uncover the truth about love, sacrifice, and forgiveness.
Black Candle Women
by Diane Marie Brown
March 23 Pick
As the Montrose women—Augusta, Victoria, and Willow—live together in their California bungalow, their lives are shaped by a powerful family bond and an unsettling legacy. For generations, the women have believed they are cursed: any man they fall in love with is destined to die. But when seventeen-year-old Nickie Montrose brings home a boy she cares about, the family’s carefully guarded rules begin to unravel. Determined to uncover the truth, Nickie sets out to break the curse that has haunted the women in her family for generations.
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
by Jamie Ford
August 22 Pick
Blending history and magical realism, the novel follows Dorothy Moy, a woman who suffers from a mysterious condition that enables her to experience her ancestors’ memories and emotions. As Dorothy searches for answers, she uncovers the remarkable story of Afong Moy, believed to be the first Chinese woman brought to America in the 1800s. Across generations of Moy women, the family’s past emerges in fragments of pain, resilience, and survival, revealing how history continues to shape their lives.
Memphis
by Tara M. Stringfellow
April 22 Pick
Three generations of women in a Memphis neighborhood struggle to protect their family and preserve their legacy. Joan, Miriam, and Hazel carry the weight of trauma and resilience passed down through the women before them. As violence threatens their home and their future, the family’s strength is tested again and again. It’s a powerful story about inheritance, survival, and the enduring bonds between mothers and daughters.
Black Cake
by Charmaine Wilkerson
February 22 Pick
When siblings Byron and Benny receive a mysterious recording after their mother’s death, they discover a hidden story that reshapes everything they thought they knew about their family. Decades earlier, their mother fled the Caribbean with secrets she never revealed. As the truth unfolds, the siblings must confront the past that shaped their lives.
Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa Gyasi
September 20 Pick
Gifty, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants growing up in Alabama, becomes a neuroscientist determined to understand addiction and depression. Her research is deeply connected to the tragedy that shaped her family: the loss of her brother Nana. As she reflects on her childhood and her mother’s struggles, Gifty begins to examine the emotional inheritance passed down through generations.
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
October 19 Pick
Siblings Danny and Maeve Conroy grow up in the grand Dutch House, a mansion that becomes both a symbol of privilege and the source of their family’s downfall. After being cast out of the home by their stepmother, the siblings spend decades revisiting the past and the choices that shaped their lives. Their bond becomes the emotional center of the story as they struggle with memory, resentment, and forgiveness.
The Last Romantics
by Tara Conklin
October 19 Pick
After the sudden death of their father, siblings Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona Skinner grow up under the shadow of their mother’s grief. The trauma of their childhood shapes the paths they take as adults, influencing their relationships and ambitions. Years later, as Fiona becomes a celebrated poet, she reflects on the family history that shaped her life.
Multigenerational family sagas have a special power: they remind us that every family carries stories that stretch far beyond one lifetime. These Read With Jenna book club picks explore the choices, secrets, and relationships that shape families across decades—sometimes even centuries. Let me know in the comments which of these books stayed with you the most?
