In the Family Way

The uplifting and conversation-starting new book club novel for summer 2025, perfect for fans of The Help or Lessons in Chemistry

A warm, uplifting and empowering novel following a group of suburban housewives and the pregnant teenager they welcome into their fold as they find their place on the cusp of liberation. For fans of Lessons in Chemistry or The Help.

Readers are loving In the Family Way:

'An emotional and consuming read. I read from start to finish in one sitting'

'Uplifting and beautifully written'

'Desperate Housewives meets Mad Men in this touching story of motherhood, girlhood, and what really happens behind closed doors in suburban America'

'An essential read'

'I love this book!'

Ohio, 1965. Every week a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday card game, sharing gossip, advice and confidences.

Lily Berg has the perfect life. She’s married to a doctor, with an infant daughter and another on the way. She can’t let her husband know she’s struggling but she knows she can trust her friends. Becca, Lily’s best friend and next-door neighbour, is everything Lily isn’t. She’s messy and brash and never on time for anything. When she falls pregnant with a fourth child she desperately can’t afford, she turns to Lily. Although Lily’s little sister, Rose, got married last year, she’s not ready to give up her independence. Her modern marriage appears to be perfect, but behind closed doors things are very different. And Betsy is fifteen, pregnant and frightened. When Lily takes her in, from the local home for unwed mothers, she has no idea how much it will shake up all of their lives.

Over six months, the group will be put to the test by secrets, forced to make impossible decisions and face up to a society that isn’t ready for women to have their own dreams and ambitions.

Set against the backdrop of 1960s America, In the Family Way is a timely novel that captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they grapple with timeless questions of womanhood and the role we play as wives, mothers, and people in our own right.

*****

'Bursts with complexity, drama and warmth… A timely, timeless novel' Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich

'A powerful tale, well told… [with] a delightful cast of characters that you can't help but fall in love with' Fiona Davis, author of The Stolen Queen

'A poignant, rich, deeply textured tale of women, friendship and struggles amid 1960s suburbia on the precipice of change' Lisa Barr, author of Woman on Fire

'Delightful and inspiring' Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Postmistress of Paris

'The women in these pages – feisty, fierce, and fragile – offer a peek behind the curtain of the precariousness of women's rights and womanhood itself' Christine Pride, co-author of We Are Not Like Them

'Bursts with the complexity, drama, and warmth of Call the Midwife, but set at the canasta and kitchen tables of 1960s suburban America. This timely, timeless novel captures not only the reproductive horrors of that era but also political awakening and a kind of nostalgic hope' Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

'Chock full of eye-opening reminders of how far women have come since the days when subversive texts like The Feminine Mystique were passed around like contraband. Set in the 1960s, the novel features a delightful cast of characters that you can’t help but fall in love with, and the book’s themes of female autonomy and reproductive freedom are just as potent today, if not more so' Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

‘A poignant, rich, deeply textured tale of women, friendship, and struggles amid 1960s suburbia on the precipice of change. Both an inspiring and gut-wrenching page-turner filled with suburban angst – what we see and what we don’t… If you love books about resilience, the power of friendship, and second chances – run, don’t walk, grab this one!’ Lisa Barr, New York Times bestselling author of Woman on Fire

‘Delightful and inspiring. Laney Katz Becker’s In the Family Way is not just an engaging story of women’s friendship in the 1960s. Through its reminder of how limited women’s lives were, it sends an important warning shot about how easy restrictions on women’s lives might return, and indeed are’ Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Postmistress of Paris

'The women in these pages – feisty, fierce, and fragile – offer a peek behind the curtain of the precariousness of women's rights and womanhood itself… We need stories that illuminate the enduring power of that particular spirit of sisterhood, which is what In the Family Way accomplishes so beautifully and with such inspiration.' Christine Pride, co-author of We Are Not Like Them

Laney Katz Becker is an award-winning author and writer. Her debut novel, Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend was a Literary Guild alternate selection, recommended by Library Journal, selected by Redbook Magazine as Editors' Favorite Pick for Fall, a Traditions Book Club selection and featured on CBS' Saturday Early Show. Laney is also the author of the non-fiction anthology, Three Times Chai, a collection of rabbis' favorite stories. Her writing career also includes working as an award-winning advertising copywriter, freelance journalist and, most recently, for more than a decade, as a literary agent. When she's not writing, Laney enjoys drawing, sewing, reading, and playing canasta.

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