A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF THE 2018 JQ WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE
A story at once extremely strange and entirely familiar - about families, innocence, art and love. This hugely enjoyable, totally unforgettable memoir is a classic in the making.
Michael's family situation is complicated. His aunt is his father's sister, who is married to his mother's brother. In this unusually intertwined world, even his grandmothers share an apartment together for twelve conflicted years.
Most unusual of all is Michael's Aunt Hankie. A gifted, glamorous screenwriter, she is a beauty with violet eyelids, a tower of hair and no children of her own, a force that Michael will spend his life alternately being drawn towards and desperately trying to escape.
A story of a magnetic figure and the boy held in her orbit, The Mighty Franks is for anyone who has struggled to find their voice amid the chaos of family life.