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WORK TITLE: Seven Days of Us
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and journalist.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Red, Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan, Guardian, Marie Claire, and Elle.
SIDELIGHTS
Prior to launching her fiction writing career, Francesca Hornak worked in the journalism field. She has published her writing within several publications, such as Red and the Sunday Times.
Seven Days of Us serves as Hornak’s literary debut. The novel focuses on a family known as the Birches, who find themselves celebrating Christmas in the most unusual way. The novel initially focuses on one member of the family, Olivia, who is dreading reuniting with her family. She has spent the months leading up to the novel’s events working in the country of Liberia, where she helped to treat patients suffering from Ebola. However, due to her exposure to their symptoms, it is unsafe for Olivia to travel anywhere else but to the place she grew up so she can be properly quarantined. However, by being in such close proximity to her family, she has forced them to join her in seclusion for everyone’s safety. The only problem is her sanity may be in bigger jeopardy than her physical health now that she’s back around her family.
Olivia’s mother is dealing with having been recently diagnosed with a serious illness that she hopes to keep under wraps from her family. Olivia’s father, on the other hand, has just learned that he has a long lost child and is struggling with this new information. What makes things worse for him is that this child is interested in building a relationship with Olivia’s father and the other members of the family, which is the last thing Olivia’s father wants to happen. Olivia’s sister is due to be married, but she isn’t as excited about the wedding as she feels she should be. Olivia, in the meantime, assumes all of her family’s issues to be a drop in the bucket compared to the suffering she has witnessed abroad. Everything is thrown for a sudden and severe loop, however, when Olivia’s long lost sibling turns up to spend the holidays with the family. Each of the family’s members finds their world thrown into chaos by the news, as they come to grips with just how much information they all have been hiding from one another and now must bring to light.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor remarked: “Hornak skillfully juggles each character’s distinct point of view and creates a family that readers will grow to love.” Booklist reviewer Stephanie Turza wrote: “Seven Days of Us will resonate with anyone who regresses the minute they step inside their childhood home.” On the Washington Times Online, Claire Hopley said: “The author is equally adept at handling the plot, setting if off smartly, whipping it on to maintain the pace, but also keeping a careful rein so that she can guide the novel to a satisfying, not quite predictable, ending.” Justin Myers, a contributor to the Irish Times Online, called the book “[a] sparkling, engrossing debut.” Globe and Mail Online writer Marissa Stapley expressed that “Hornak’s gift for storytelling is a true pleasure.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly stated: “Hornak imbues each character with a singularity that underscores her spot-on insight about human nature.” On the Caffeinated Reviewer blog, one writer commented: “While not without issues, Seven Days of Us delivered an entertaining read, just in time for the holidays.” Lincee Ray, writing on the Chicago Tribune Online, remarked: “No matter which side you land on, you will laugh at hilarious situations and be touched by others, ultimately discovering that the Birch family is basically every family.” 20SomethingReads website reviewer Megan Elliott wrote: “Seven Days of Us doesn’t lack for twists, but Hornak also has a keen understanding of family dynamics, which gives the story emotional heft.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2017, Stephanie Turza, review of Seven Days of Us, p. 48.
Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2017, review of Seven Days of Us.
Library Journal, June 15, 2017, review of Seven Days of Us, p. 3a.
ONLINE
20SomethingReads, https://www.20somethingreads.com/ (October 20, 2017), Megan Elliott, review of Seven Days of Us.
Caffeinated Reviewer, https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/ (October 16, 2017), review of Seven Days of Us.
Chicago Tribune Online, http://www.chicagotribune.com/ (October 17, 2017), Lincee Ray, “Follow a family in quarantine in ‘Seven Days of Us,'” review of Seven Days of Us.
Globe and Mail Online, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/ (December 14, 2017), Marissa Stapley, “Review: Francesca Hornak’s Seven Days of Us is delightfully madcap,” review of Seven Days of Us.
Irish Times Online, https://www.irishtimes.com/ (October 21, 2017), Justin Myers, “Seven Days of Us review: Christmas claustrophobia captured,” review of Seven Days of Us.
Out of the Bex, http://outofthebex.com/ (May 1, 2018), “Author Interview & Mini Review: Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak.”
Penguin Random House Website, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ (May 1, 2018), author profile.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (October 30, 2017), review of Seven Days of Us.
Washington Times Online, https://www.washingtontimes.com/ (November 23, 2017), Claire Hopley, “A family’s extravagant togetherness,” review of Seven Days of Us.
Francesca Hornak
Photo of Francesca Hornak
Photo: © Billie Scheepers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Francesca Hornak is a journalist and writer, whose work has appeared in newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Red. Seven Days of Us is her debut novel. Visit her online at twitter.com/FrancescaHornak.
Author Interview & Mini Review: Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
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Tag: Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak – Author Interview and Mini Review
The holiday season is almost upon us. To most of us that means fun decor, perfectly wrapped gifts, and Starbucks red cups – but it also means time with family. A lot of time with family. If you’re a Hallmark card, this translates to warm, fuzzy feelings and your loved ones cheerily roasting chestnuts over a cozy fire. Though, if we’re honest, the reality is not always so picturesque.
If anyone has captured the mixed emotions of time spent with family over the Holidays, it’s Francesca Hornak in her contemporary fiction, Seven Days of Us. If you thought your holiday sleeping arrangements were a bit tight, try spending seven days under quarantine… with your entire family.
ABOUT SEVEN DAYS OF US
It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family.
For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems.
As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down.
In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…
GET TO KNOW THE AUTHOR
What is your favorite holiday movie?
It’s A Wonderful Life.
Coffee or tea?
If I could only keep one for life it would be tea, because I’m British. But coffee is my writing drink, so I’d need a new job.
Hardcover or paperback?
Paperback. Hardbacks are annoying in the bath and on the Tube – two prime reading opportunities.
Early bird or night owl?
Both. It’s the afternoon that I’d like to fast forward.
seven-days-of-us-berkley-francesca-hornak-author-interview-mini-review-blog-tourSave
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Which of your characters would you most want to spend 7 quarantined days with?
I think they’d all be quite grating. Probably Jesse, because he’s the least neurotic.
What’s the most difficult thing about writing from multiple characters’ perspectives?
Keeping their various backstories clear. I discovered that four members of an immediate family can have a lot of private stuff going on.
How has publishing your first fiction book changed your writing?
I’m becoming less inhibited about description. As a journalist you train yourself to be succinct, which is a hard habit to break.
What was your hardest scene to write?
Olivia’s collapse – I find high drama harder to convey than simmering tension. Plus there were loads of medical details to get wrong.
How did you choose the names for your characters?
I’m quite pragmatic about this: I look up the most popular baby names for the year the character was born, then pick one that suits their social background. Then I check that it doesn’t sound similar to any of the other characters’ names. I wouldn’t have called Olivia ‘Sophie’ for example, even though it would have fitted, because Sophie and Phoebe sound (and look) too similar. I never want to inflict that ‘Who the hell is Richard?’ feeling on the reader.
In Seven Days of Us you hint at the cultural differences between Britons and Americans. What difference stands out most to you?
Jesse’s emotional fluency vs British embarrassment around feelings. Although I’m aware this is very stereotyped!
What is your favorite part of your story (without giving away any major spoilers)?
The sisters’ row on Boxing Day. It was fun to have Phoebe say the things I wanted Olivia to hear.
What authors inspire you as a writer?
Jennifer Egan, Candace Bushnell, Charlotte Mendelson, Lori Moore, Joshua Ferris
What’s next for you? Are you planning another novel?
Yes. I’m writing another multi-perspective novel set around a members-only garden in London.
MINI REVIEW
Francesca Hornak has written the perfect addition to your holiday viewings of films like Love Actually, It’s A Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Story. You’ll simultaneously want to hug, shake, slap, and high-five all of these characters in turn – pretty much exactly how you feel about your family members five minutes into Christmas dinner, isn’t it?
When you need a break from your family this winter, drive to your nearest Starbucks for a red cup filled with goodness (add a little eggnog, I won’t judge you), wrap yourself in a cozy throw blanket, and snuggle up by the fire to enjoy this humorous Brit-Lit fiction – suddenly, you won’t feel so alone. Don’t miss out on Seven Days of Us this holiday season!
VERDICT: BORROW IT/BUY IT
LENGTH: 368 PAGES
PUBLISHER: AVAILABLE OCTOBER 2017 FROM BERKLEY
Seven Days of US: A novel
Francesca Hornak
Library Journal.
142.11 (June 15, 2017): p3a.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution
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Hornak, Francesca: SEVEN DAYS OF
US
Kirkus Reviews.
(Aug. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Hornak, Francesca SEVEN DAYS OF US Berkley (Adult Fiction) $26.00 10, 17 ISBN: 978-0-451-48875-6
A family must spend seven days quarantined together--with all their disagreements, resentments, and
secrets--in this debut novel.Olivia Birch feels right at home treating patients of the Ebola-like Haag
epidemic in Liberia. She feels less at home, however, at her own family's country house. Since she has
nowhere else to go, she returns home for Christmas, and because she was exposed to a deadly virus, her
entire family must stay in quarantine with her. While monitoring herself for symptoms and missing the
doctor with whom she had a secret and ill-advised romantic relationship, Olivia rolls her eyes at what she
sees as her family's frivolous concerns. Her relatives, however, are dealing with their own problems. Her
younger sister, Phoebe, is wrapped up in planning a wedding to a man she's not all that passionate about.
Her restaurant-reviewer father, Andrew, has just received an email from the grown son he didn't know he
had. And her mother, Emma, just got a cancer diagnosis that she's determined to keep from the family until
after the quarantine is over. The family's already tenuous bond is turned upside down when Andrew's son
shows up at the door. Soon, secrets are spilling out, and everyone realizes they don't know quite as much
about their family as they thought they did. Hornak skillfully juggles each character's distinct point of view
and creates a family that readers will grow to love. This holiday read is perfect for fans of cozy Christmas
films like Love Actually and The Family Stone. An emotional but ultimately uplifting holiday story.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hornak, Francesca: SEVEN DAYS OF US." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500364860/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0d81d9b5.
Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500364860
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1524432197715 4/4
Seven Days of Us
Stephanie Turza
Booklist.
114.1 (Sept. 1, 2017): p48.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Seven Days of Us. By Francesca Hornak. Oct. 2017.368p. Berkley, $26 (9780451488756).
The Birch family hasn't spent Christmas together in years, but that's about to change. Olivia, the eldest
Birch daughter, just returned from treating a life-threatening virus in Liberia and must be quarantined for a
week. Emma, the family matriarch, will take any excuse to spend time with the globe-trotting doctor and
decides to host the holidays in her family's country home, Weyfield Hall. Andrew, the patriarch, finds
Weyfield Hall drafty and out-of-date, but an unexpected email makes the accommodations the least of his
worries. Youngest daughter Phoebe, preoccupied with her wedding plans, frankly finds Olivia a bit
sanctimonious about the whole saving-the-world thing. While the Birches are stuck in Weyfield Hall for a
week, long-standing resentments are aired, secrets are unveiled, and the family realizes that this Christmas
is sure to be unlike any other. Hornak's first novel is a farcical gem, perfect for fans of Matthew Norman
and Emma Straub. Hornak lets each member of the dysfunctional Birch ensemble narrate in turn, so the
reader gains a full picture of the family dynamics. Alternately tender and razor-sharp, Seven Days of Us
will resonate with anyone who regresses the minute they step inside their childhood home. --Stephanie
Turza
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Turza, Stephanie. "Seven Days of Us." Booklist, 1 Sept. 2017, p. 48. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509161574/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b3643ef0.
Accessed 22 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509161574
Christmas is coming. Time for families to get to get together, to reconnect and reminisce, to eat the scrumptious things they eat at Christmas — and then to go their separate ways.
But what if Christmas with the family meant seven days staying strictly in the same house, its doors closed to outsiders? Could this be too much of a good thing? Maybe even a downright bad thing?
In “Seven Days of Us” the Birch family spend Christmas holed up in their country house in Norfolk. It’s Emma’s childhood home and she loves it. Her husband Andrew is less enthusiastic. He’s used to going there for Christmas because she insists, but not for seven days, and not without the relief of other company and visits to shops and pubs and friends.
But 2016 is different because eldest daughter Olivia, a doctor just returned from working with victims of a lethal epidemic in Africa, has to go into quarantine. She’s spending Christmas with the family, which is unusual for her, so they have to be quarantined with her. She and her father Andrew are not close, nor are she and her flibbertigibbet sister Phoebe.
Nothing extraordinary in that, and since Emma is thrilled to have Olivia home, and Phoebe is happily absorbed in planning her wedding, things ought to be OK. They might even be happily festive.
But Andrew has a secret. A short while ago he learned that he had fathered a son with to a woman with whom he had had a brief fling when he was working in Lebanon. She had given up the baby for adoption. Now, that child Jesse, raised in Iowa but grown up and living in Los Angeles, has been in touch. He wants to meet Andrew and his half-sisters.
Andrew wants no such thing. He and Emma were not married when Jesse was conceived, but they were already a couple, and he fears she won’t be best pleased to learn that he has a son older than Olivia. So Andrew doesn’t reply to Jesse. Ever hopeful, Jesse sends follow-up emails, then decides to spend Christmas in England, and arrange a meeting while he is there.
Poor Jesse. He spends Christmas alone in a miserable hotel.
Andrew also spends a glum Christmas sitting in the smoking room, trying to think how to hide Jesse’s existence. Olivia, too, has a rough time. She’s thinking of the man she loves, an Irish doctor she met in Africa. As ever, Phoebe does her own thing, and is happy enough when her fianc gatecrashes and has to remain in quarantine with her.
Countless fictional mysteries and entanglements have been unraveled in English country houses, so “Seven Days of Us” arouses comfortable memories of earlier novels in which the action twists and tangles before eventually straightening out.
Francesca Hornak uses the country-house setting well, showing its charms, but also letting us see that it is outdated and a bit suffocating. In this environment her plot fizzes with teasing possibilities ranging from complete holiday disaster to farcical fun as relationships settle in new forms.
She keeps everything in play by using short chapters, each told by a different character. Readers see their varying points of view, and also what they think of the rest of the family, and gradually this clarifies the reasons for their issues and estrangements.
Perhaps surprisingly, this stratagem also keeps the reader at a certain arm’s length. You can see what may happen but it’s rather like watching a play where you witness everything on stage, but from a distance. You ponder everyone’s situation, rather than slithering empathetically into it.
Andrew, a former foreign correspondent now working as a restaurant critic, comes out of this poorly. So perhaps does Phoebe, the pet of the family, though she can be fun. Emma fades from view as she lets herself be the materfamilias. Jesse is less than credible.
The thinness of the characterization is mitigated by Ms. Hornak’s excellent ear for dialogue. All the characters have distinctly individual voices. Andrew is snarky. Olivia too solemn for her own good. Phoebe is mistress of the quick quip, while George is a master of cliche.
The author is equally adept at handling the plot, setting if off smartly, whipping it on to maintain the pace, but also keeping a careful rein so that she can guide the novel to a satisfying, not quite predictable, ending.
Magazines and newspapers regularly warn us that Christmas is the most stressful season of the year. The Birch family go through enough stress to last for several Christmases. Reading about them could prompt reflections on family holidays and much more. It will certainly hold attention.
Christmas comes with complications. On the surface, it’s a happy time: shop windows glisten with cutesy capitalism, carols ring out from public squares, and families travel far and wide to be together, to revel in the reassuring familiarity of one another’s likeness and settle into in-jokes and long-established hierarchies, lamenting that work and distance conspires to keep them apart. Usually, however, about four hours in, everybody remembers why they live so far away and the rows begin.
Francesca Hornak’s debut novel Seven Days of Us perfectly captures this festive claustrophobia and the push-and-pull between sepia-tinted childhood memories and passive-aggressive adult resentment. Any other family may well have called it a day and scattered back to their preferred corner of the Earth by December 23rd, but the Birches – the “us” of the title – are bound together, no hope of escape until the last of the turkey leftovers has been served.
Eldest daughter Olivia returns from Liberia, where she’s been working as a medic battling the highly contagious – and thankfully fictitious – Haag disease. She must remain quarantined and it’s decided she’ll hole up with her family in her mother’s inherited ancestral home in Norfolk, a creaking relic with questionable heating, for the entire festive period. There’s her newspaper restaurant critic dad Andrew, enthusiastic and well-meaning mother Emma, who is fresh from a cancer diagnosis she intends to keep secret until quarantine is over, and younger sister Phoebe.
The only catch? Nobody can leave, and nobody new can enter. For a whole week. This is inconvenient for everyone except Emma, who misses the family Christmases of old, but especially for disgruntled sibling – and very relatable – Phoebe, who steels herself for another Christmas of fussing over the sanctimonious Olivia.
Phoebe is freshly engaged to dull posh boy George for no good reason other than she thinks it’s about time she should be, and her desire for fun, luxury and attention grates marvellously against Olivia’s at times enervating worthiness and pontificating. Usually, however, with family, we bristle more out of habit than actual ill-feeling, and the sisters gradually begin to find common ground, despite some expertly flung spanners in the works, usually just as we near a detente.
As the novel unfolds, Olivia’s guilt over a forbidden relationship with fellow medic Sean that could endanger more lives, and Phoebe’s sense of responsibility when she discovers her mother is ill, reveal the flaws beneath their respective armours.
Skeletons
While all this is going on, Andrew has a few skeletons awaiting liberation from his closet, namely a one-night stand from his days as a war correspondent and that dalliance’s product – handsome American Jesse – eagerly searching for answers and a family of his own. Emma too is torn between her idealisation of a family Christmas and the reality of what awaits her once the quarantine is over.
Seven Days of Us is a compelling novel with expertly-drawn characters – especially those within the immediate family – and much is made of the Birches’ differences and shared character traits, along with simmering resentment at exclusive closeness between other family members. It’s exactly the type of disagreements that come up at huge family events or reunions – the age-old dichotomy between the desperation to be your own person and the inexplicable need to belong to a tribe with an emotional bond. The family’s individual narratives – each chapter is written from a different character’s point of view, both marvellously engrossing and intrusive – are witty and endearing, but tinged with jealousy and wistfulness. Relative stranger Jesse’s observations allow us to step back and see them as other families might, maybe even inadvertently holding up a mirror to how we behave among our own clan.
The novel is so packed with twists and turns that the odd subplot can feel extraneous. As a gay man, I crave representation in mainstream novels but the slight gay intrigue subplot could easily be left out. As in real life when you stare at one another over the Christmas table, you’re not sure who to root for, so there’s no playing favourites but in the end you find yourself willing them all to work things out. This is a charming and warm, yet spiky and incisive, novel that you won’t want to put down. By the time we make it to New Year’s Eve, you’ll feel you’ve lived every second of the festive period alongside them, and much like your own loved ones, you’ll realise, just as you prepare your goodbyes, that you really did love them after all, and wish it could’ve gone on longer. A sparkling, engrossing debut.
The premise of this debut novel by British journalist Francesca Hornak is delightfully madcap: a dysfunctional family is forced to quarantine themselves for seven days over Christmas at their drafty and crumbling rural ancestral estate. Olivia Birch, the eldest sister, is a doctor and do-gooder who has managed to avoid Christmas for years with the family she feels increasingly distant from as she wraps herself up in her work. This year, she has dedicated herself to treating victims of a disease called Haag (the disease is fictional; it resembles Ebola) in Liberia. Coming home is more of a culture shock than usual, and the enforced seven-day quarantine doesn't help. Her younger sister – and polar opposite – Phoebe couldn't care less about Haag victims and is instead embroiled in extravagant wedding plans with a man it becomes increasingly clear is Mr. Wrong. Her materialist obsessions bring childhood resentments bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, family secrets are also beginning to simmer: Mother Emma has just been diagnosed with cancer and is trying keep this under wraps during the holiday quarantine and father Andrew – a journalist known for his curmudgeonly restaurant reviews – has just been contacted by a young man who says he's his long-lost son, conceived during Andrew's lost years as a war correspondent in Beirut, when it sounds like he was a much more interesting person. With its blend of humour and social conscience, this novel reminded me of another favourite debut: Helen Fielding's Cause Celeb. The one weak link is dull, grouchy Andrew. He is revealed to be more than the sum of his parts, sure, but it wasn't quite enough for me to forgive him for being such an insensitive prat. The other characters are charming, though, and Hornak's gift for storytelling is a true pleasure.
Hornak’s smart, delightfully funny, page-turning debut takes a posh, dysfunctional British family—two parents, two adult daughters, each with a secret—slaps on a week’s worth of quarantine at Christmastime, and adds a dash of pathos as well as a large helping of humor. Do-gooder Olivia Birch is back from treating an Ebola-like epidemic in Liberia—hence the catalyst for the family quarantine—and doesn’t want anyone to know about her affair with one of her coworkers. Andrew, her father and a former Beirut war correspondent, has just received an email from Jesse Robinson, a son in the U.S. he never knew he had from a one-night stand in Lebanon years ago. Andrew’s wife, Emma, recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is determined not to ruin Christmas by spilling the beans about her illness. Daughter Phoebe has just accepted a proposal from her swanky boyfriend, George, but she’s not sure she truly loves him. Jesse travels to the U.K. to meet his biological father and the ensuing coincidences, mishaps, arguments, and opportunities for self-reflection upend the Birch family relationships. As the story unfolds from various viewpoints, Hornak imbues each character with a singularity that underscores her spot-on insight about human nature.
I was drawn to Seven Days of Us, by Francesca Hornak at the prospect of spending time with a quarantine family during the holidays. Anyone who comes from a big family knows how completely complicated and interesting this set up can be. I had a love/hate relationship with the story but found myself caught up in this family soap opera.
Caffeinated Aspects:
The Birches have long spent their holidays at Weyfield Hall an aging country estate where Mrs. Birches tries to recapture the idyllic holidays of her youth. The children are grown now, and Christmases haven’t been quite the same. When their oldest daughter Oliva is forced into a seven-day quartine after returning home from a shift as a doctor in a Haug Outbreak abroad. Phoebe the younger sister has become engaged and looks forward to planning her wedding. Their father, Andrew not one for all the fuss hides in his home office, all while their mother, Emma, tries to create the perfect holiday. Oliva is trying to readjust to life outside an outbreak, Andrew and Emma are harboring secrets and poor Phoebe is blind to her fiances’ struggles. Interest dynamic for a quarantine.
Crisis, secrets, and unexpected connections oh my! This read like a soap opera but Hornak did it in such a way, that you became caught up in the characters and gads I am going to say it. She made me feel sorry for them. Even poor Phoebe who acted at times like a selfish child.
Hornak captured the complications and simplicity of family. Age old arguments, childhood stories no one lets you forget and labeling you can never escape. Each character fell into some cliche, the fix it all Mom, the opinionated activist, the favorite and the pompous and self-righteous.
We are given multiple perspectives that allowed us to see past their outward exteriors exposing not only their flaws but honorable traits.
I loved how each chapter was labeled with who, their place within the house and the time. It felt like a play or whodunnit.
Unexpected guests, the epidemic, and complications made for some interesting scenes. We did get snippets of humor and fond memories. For a home under quarantine, it certainly was busy! All of which proved to be addictive, because I needed answers as I awaited reactions and discoveries.
We witness growth in each of the characters and I felt they left quartine understanding each other and perhaps closer. I cannot say I loved any of them and certainly wouldn’t befriend any, but I did identify with Emma and could see some aspects of her in myself.
The book offers some diversity and I liked the openness of the characters.
Decaffeinated Aspects:
All of the threads and twists were well developed but together all in the same week made the tale feel more like a soap opera. There was a lot happening to these poor people individually and as a family.
You aren’t going to love any of these characters, even Emma felt pigeonholed as a housewife. All of them possess traits you will struggle with. However, I must point out that at no time did I want to set this down. It was addictive. Mhmm..like a soap opera or reality tv. I am quite sure this will be snagged for the big screen.
As addictive as this was, I wish that the characters had been more fleshed out and some of the melodrama removed.
The Birches handling of the quarantine and Haag virus drove me crazy.
While not without issues, Seven Days of Us delivered an entertaining read, just in time for the holidays.
Going home for the holidays can be a heartwarming occasion for some. For others, the thought of spending even an afternoon of forced yuletide joy with family is enough to bring on a panic attack. In her debut novel, "Seven Days of Us," Francesca Hornak dives into various dynamics that revolve around a traditional Christmas holiday, including an interesting twist of events that adds an extra layer of awkwardness on the blessed event.
To say Olivia Birch isn't looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her family is an understatement. She rarely comes home for any holiday, but this year is different. Olivia is fresh off a medical assignment in Africa where she's been working to help underprivileged people through a horrific outbreak of a life-threatening virus. Although all precautions have been taken to keep Olivia safe, she must remain in quarantine over the holiday break. That translates to seven days cooped up with her annoyingly doting mother Emma, her mostly absent father Andrew and her wildly materialistic sister Phoebe.
All families are dysfunctional on some level, but tensions rise when secrets are added to the mix. Each family member is hiding groundbreaking information from the others and must act covertly to maintain the facade that all is well. Olivia doesn't want anyone to know what really happened in Africa. Emma is determined that she will keep her recent cancer diagnosis from ruining the holidays. Andrew fights to conceal details of his past under wraps, and Phoebe pretends she's ecstatic about her recent engagement to her long-time boyfriend George.
As each day ticks by, the Birch family cracks a little more under the pressure. With everyone under one roof, including some unexpected guests who now have to join the quarantine fun, they all recognize seemingly insignificant details and uncharacteristic behaviors that suddenly don't make sense. Will the Birch family continue to function in surface niceties while resentment boils underneath? Or will someone blow up, causing a chain reaction of confessions?
Alternating among each family member's point of view gives "Seven Days of Us" a fresh perspective on each character. Hornak allows readers to understand both sides of the secret before forming an opinion on how he or she would have handled the situation. No matter which side you land on, you will laugh at hilarious situations and be touched by others, ultimately discovering that the Birch family is basically every family.
Heading home for Christmas might be an annual ritual for many, but that doesn’t mean it’s always a welcome one, as anyone who’s ever viewed spending a few days cloistered with loved ones with a mix of anticipation and trepidation knows. Yet a week together is exactly what the Birch family is going to get in SEVEN DAYS OF US, a witty and fun tale of a family that might just be more dysfunctional than yours.
The premise of Francesca Hornak’s fiction debut --- which arrives just in time for the holiday season --- is either nightmarish or cozy, depending on your feelings about your relatives. Olivia, the eldest Birch daughter, is a doctor just returned from Liberia, where she’s been treating victims of a deadly, Ebola-like outbreak. Subject to a mandatory seven-day quarantine, she’ll be waiting out the week between Christmas and New Year’s with her doting mother, distant father and spoiled younger sister at their isolated house in the English countryside.
It’s the first Yuletide that the semi-estranged Birch family is spending together in years, a situation tailor-made for conflict. Mix in a few skeletons in the closet, and it’s clear that a week in close confines will force every member of this quirky clan to reevaluate their relationships with each other. The accumulated revelations, which include a hidden illness, a secret child and a cheating fiancé, are piled on with a heavy hand, giving the story a touch of the soap opera. But Hornak, who capably juggles the book’s multiple perspectives, uses them as effective fuel for plenty of tense (and at times amusing) dinner table scenes.
All this drama unfolds in a setting that’s catnip to Anglophones. Being well off and English, the Birches naturally own a country estate, to which they retreat for their unwilling sequestration. Weyfield Hall is more of a moldering pile than a luxury retreat, though. There are hints of faded charm, but the rooms are drafty, the ancient stove is uncooperative, the hot water is unreliable, and the front door refuses to close properly --- a detail that will prove important when an unexpected guest arrives.
SEVEN DAYS OF US doesn’t lack for twists, but Hornak also has a keen understanding of family dynamics, which gives the story emotional heft. Matriarch Emma is desperate to create “one more Christmas, just the four of us,” while privately wondering why her family no longer seems to understand each other. Andrew, a war correspondent turned sharp-tongued restaurant critic (one unfortunate dish is dismissed as “flap of briny irrelevance”), hides his emotions behind a veneer of snark, which has poisoned his relationships with his wife and eldest child. Flighty, fun-loving Phoebe is quietly pondering questions about her future, while Olivia is both maddeningly self-righteous and understandably frustrated by her family’s insular privilege.
Into this messy tableau lands Jesse, a thirty-something American adoptee on a quest to reconnect with his birth father, Andrew. When he shows up on the doorstep, the relentlessly cheerful foreigner forces a reckoning within the Birch family. Will this new addition to the clan --- who’s fallen in love from afar with Weyfield’s “roaring fires, family portraits, and dark paneling” --- find what he’s looking for in England? Will Phoebe and Olivia forgive their father’s indiscretion? Will Emma and Andrew be able to repair their broken relationship?
Francesca Hornak provides answers to all those questions and more, though the narrative strains a bit when it moves from the country back to London and the Birches are faced with one last crisis --- one they’ll only be able to cope with together. Without family, Hornak reminds us, we’d all be alone, forced to stare down life’s disasters on our own. And that might be the one thing worse than being stuck with each other.