Are We Related?, Edited by Liz Jobey
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Philip Larkin's famously frank condemnation of the effects of parents - that they "fuck us up" - lead us into this Granta collection of fiction and memoir on family relationships.
It ranges from David Goldblatt's memory of his elderly, murdered father to Linda Grant's recollections of the impossibility of managing her mother's dementia ("my mother, my child") which formed a part of her book, Remind Me of Who I Am Again.
Ali Smith's joyous, childlike dad-worship sits alongside the sad cynicism in Raymond Carver's "Call If You Need Me", a stunning story about infidelity unpublished in his lifetime.
These evocations of family life by Graham Swift, Hilary Mantel and Orhan Pamuk, among others, both refute and reinstate Larkin's fatalism.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments