In brief
Nathalie has always been happy to be an adopted child. It’s given her the chance to choose her own identity. But now, in her late thirties, she is overtaken by a sudden and desperate need to discover her roots. Insisting that David, her adopted brother, seek out his own birth mother, Nathalie plunges her family into turmoil and irrevocable change.

In detail
In Brother and Sister Joanna Trollope explores the ties that bind, whether they be ties of blood or ties of familial love, and the urgent need to know who we are and where we come from. The novel follows Nathalie and David - both adopted, both with different birth mothers and both sharing a visceral bond which comes of a mutual understanding of rejection - as they try to discover their roots, and the emotional upset that ricochets through their immediate and extended families.

When Nathalie and Steve’s five-year-old daughter is diagnosed with a hereditary hearing problem, Nathalie’s sanguine acceptance of her adoption is shaken. After talking to Sasha who is researching the effects of adoption in later life, Nathalie finds herself seized with a passionate desire to find her birth mother. She is determined that David - at first reluctant and convinced that his coping strategies are sufficient - must join her, despite the inevitable anguish such a decision will visit upon their adopted mother, Lynne. Deeply unsettled by the adopted siblings’ commitment to their quest, both Steve and David’s wife, Marnie, find their lives in a state of disruption. Steve’s business begins to slip from his control as his attention is drawn elsewhere by Sasha, to whom he turns for explanation and a tortuous consolation. Marnie’s abundant energy, usually channelled into her beloved family, is sapped by her consternation at David’s behaviour and her feelings of exclusion. While Ralph, Nathalie and David’s adopted father, is both supportive and accepting, his wife Lynne feels distraught and rejected. When David and Nathalie meet their respective birth mothers, both find some sort of resolution but they also find that their lives cannot remain the same. Each must examine their relationship with their partners and with their families; each must adjust themselves to their new-found identities.

About the author 
Distantly related to the nineteenth-century novelist, Anthony Trollope, Joanna Trollope became well-known in the 1990s for her novels of life amongst the middle-classes and their sympathetic examination of contemporary domestic dilemmas. The first of these, The Choir, appeared in 1988, although several of her historical novels (now published under the pseudonym Caroline Harvey) came out in the early 1980s. Four of her novels (The Choir, The Rector’s Wife, A Village Affair and Other People’s Children) have been successfully adapted for television. Joanna Trollope divides her time between London and Oxford.

For discussion

• Why does Nathalie decide to trace her birth mother after years of insisting that she is untroubled by her adoption? Why is she so determined that David join her? How does David’s experience of adoption and his method of coping with it differ from Nathalie’s?
• How would you describe Nathalie and David’s relationship? Is it very different from an average sibling relationship and, if so, in what way? How is it changed after they have met their birth mothers?
• ‘Family, it became clear, was Marnie’s religion’ (page 38). How do other characters feel about the idea of the family?
• Chess is very important to David, taking up much of his time and, as Marnie sees it, distracting his attention from the family. What is it that attracts him to the game? What does his near obsession with it tell us about him?
• What do you think of Ralph’s theory that ‘adoptive parents don’t feel as guilty about their children’s personalities as birth parents do, so that frees them from the responsibilities that encourage resentment’ (page 51)? Do you think Lynne would agree with this? How different do Nathalie and David seem from their adoptive parents?
• When discussing his feelings about David’s decision, Ralph says to his son, ‘I don’t feel it personally. I mean, I care very much it all turns out well for you, but I’m not afraid you won’t be my son any more’ (page 162), but Lynne tells Steve that she feels she has ‘gone from being the goodie to being the baddie’ (page 148). Why do you think Ralph and Lynne feel so differently?
• How are Marnie and Steve affected by their partners’ search for their birth mothers? Why do you think they react in this way? How do they both feel by the end of the book? To what extent have Nathalie and David’s choice of partners been influenced by the fact that they are adopted? What qualities do Steve and Marnie share?
• How has the decision to give up their children for adoption affected Cora and Carole? Why did they decide to take this route? What are their reactions when they meet their children and how are their lives changed? To what extent has either Nathalie or David considered the effects of their search on their birth mothers?
• Nathalie has said for years that she has chosen who she is; Carole thinks that when secrets are exposed all control is lost. The words ‘choice’ and ‘control’ echo through the novel. To what extent do you think any of the characters were able to control what happened to them or to choose their fate?
• What is it that David and Nathalie are both seeking? What gaps do they hope to fill in their lives? ‘Nobody regrets making this journey’ Elaine tells Nathalie (page 103). Was their quest worth it despite all the pain? With which characters do you feel most sympathy and why? Referring to Elaine’s advice, David says to Natalie, ‘we all know, deep down, if we’re wanted’ (page 222). Does this prove to be the case for both David and Nathalie? What about other characters in the novel?

Suggested further reading
Shadow Baby by Margaret Forster
Fashionably Late by Olivia Goldsmith
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Eskimo Kissing by Kate Mosse
Fortune’s Rocks by Anita Shreve

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