Looking for the name of a book

[theDudesmummy]

Hi, I wasn't sure where to put this request, but I am looking for the name of the author and a book, it is bugging me a lot that I can't remember it (not because I liked it, I have to say, but because I very much disliked it!).

I think it was set in London, spans a short period of time, and describes a character (I can't remember if male or female) finding out that their father is not their biological father and the family's reactions to that. Does anyone know what it is? I have a feeling it was by a "literary" author and remember finding it annoyingly self-indulgent and overwritten/overwrought. (Of course that's just me, others may have loved it!).

Can you give more details?

When did you read it?

Was it new at the time?

Was it a hardback/paperback/ebook/audiobook?

Was it sad/funny/horror/mystery?

Any other details can help narrow it down as that's a very common plot point in books.

My Father's Daughter by Hannah Pool?

Or Raceless by Georgina Lawton?

No I am afraid it's not either of those. The characters were all white very much upper middle-class people as I recall. I don't think the bio father's family featured at all, it was about the reactions of the family the character was in. I seem to remember it being set over a period of only a few days or even hours, but I may only be remembering part of the book I suppose.

I think I read it in late 90s/early 2000s? But I cannot remember if it was new. Almost definitely in paperback. It wasn't funny or a mystery etc, it was an overwrought family psychological drama, as I recall it. I can't remember how it ended at all.

Is it ‘The Other Family’ by Joanna Trollope? I went through a phase of reading her novels about 20 years ago, and they’re all terribly middle class and overwrought!

Chat GPT suggests…

Here are a few possibilities that were considered—but they don’t fully align:

1. Graham Swift’s Tomorrow (2007) — set in London, over about one night; a mother reflects on a long-hidden family truth. But it’s a bit late (2007), and the secret concerns wider family origins rather than paternity per se .
2. Edward St Aubyn’s Mother’s Milk (2006) and earlier in his Melrose quartet (1992–2002) — literary, upper‑class, psychologically intense, but largely about abuse, alcoholism, inheritance, and extended family rather than a short frame or a newly revealed biological father .
3. Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child (2012) is later and more sprawling, covering decades—not a fit on timeframe or focus .

No other mid‑’90s/2000s literary London‑based novels with that premise turn up reliably in searches. There were many racy or romantic novels about paternity (especially in the romance genre), but those are not literary and often far more melodramatic and global in scope.

It’s possible the book was by a relatively obscure literary author—perhaps a debut or small‑press paperback—now out of print. Or it may have been a domestic drama with a brief timeline that didn’t receive wide coverage.

Next steps that might help narrow it down:

• Was the narrator male or female? And was it first person?
• Do you recall any plot detail: siblings, age of child, marriage tensions, setting beyond just London (e.g. West London suburb, house, dinner party)?
• Any recollection of the book cover, colours, paperback size?
• Was it possibly translated into English (less likely, but sometimes)?
• Do you remember the tone—introspective, bleak, overloaded, emotionally overwrought?

Even a hint of character names or a standout scene would be helpful. If you recall any more detail, I’d be glad to dig further to try to find it. Let me know!

@FloraBotticelli that's it! Tomorrow by Graham Swift! I am obviously remembering wrongly when I read it, but that is definitely it, thank you so much! I am gratified to see from looking at some reviews that some reviewers hated it as much as I did!