If you’re tempted to despair of your own family this Christmas, turn to Dickens for a reminder that it could be a whole lot worse, says reader Daniel Gooding
Maxton Walker: This story of an eccentric Scottish family is outwardly more conventional than many Banks books, but 25 years on its central mystery remains compelling
For all that he wanted to “rip a reader’s nerves to shreds’, Steinbeck’s tale of a drought-stricken farmers makes an enduring case for the extended family
Tove Jansson’s Finnish troll creations have beguiling adventures with a host of strange characters. But, at heart, their strength comes from being a loving family, writes Stuart Kelly
Veronica Horwell: This classic portrait of an American family living in genteel poverty throws a comfortable quilt over the hardships of Alcott’s own childhood
With its five sets of twins, its mistaken identities and its unlikely coincidences, Carter’s final novel puts the magic into family life, writes Kit Buchan
Critics slammed Self’s blackly comic extravaganza about an angry matriarch stuck in the afterlife - but it’s one of the most piercing portraits of maternal love I have read, writes Claire Armitstead
A banker, an arms dealer, a corrupt politician and a tabloid hack... Justine Jordan begins our new seasonal series with the despicable dynasty from Coe’s 1994 black comedy about privilege and greed
Families in literature: the Mortmains in I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith