If You Like The Great Wherever…

The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders (2026) is a family saga focusing on the Lamb family from the time of slavery to today. Aubrey is in her 30s and living in D.C., working three jobs and waiting for her white boyfriend to propose. Instead he dumps her, and she goes to Tennessee to meet the other owners of her family’s land and consider an offer to sell.

The book is narrated by those members of the Lamb family who have already died. The ghosts are able to observe the living and know their thoughts, but they also fill us in on the past trials and triumphs.

I enjoyed the meandering narrative and the richly drawn characters (and I was grateful to the family tree at the beginning of the book so I could keep everyone straight).

The books below are other sagas that make us feel like a member of the family by the last page.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)

Ifemelu and Obinze were high school sweethearts in Nigeria. Their paths diverge when Ifemelu goes to the U.S. to study and Obinze, his visa denied, moves to the U.K. as an undocumented immigrant. Ifemelu’s observations about being Black in America are sharp and insightful — she starts a blog that gets a lot of attention. Obinze returns to Nigeria and becomes a successful, if not entirely above board, businessman. When Ifemelu finally returns to Nigeria years later, their paths intertwine again.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)

Bennett’s novel follows the Vignes twin sisters from the 1950s to the 1990s. Both run away at age 16 from their small Southern hometown, and then their paths diverge. One marries a white man and passes for white — even her husband knows nothing about her race. The other winds up back in the town she tried to flee. When their daughters meet, they are forced to confront the past and their choices.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (2023)

This stunning family saga follows multiple generations in India from 1900–1977. In each generation, a family member dies of drowning. The fear of water and the grief over these deaths hangs over all even as they try to find a reason for this malady. Religion plays an important role here, as the family is part of the Christian minority in India.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (2023)

McBride’s novel is both the story of a neighborhood — Chicken Hill — and a murder mystery. In Chicken Hill, Jewish and Black neighbors live side by side. Chona runs the titular grocery store; her husband Moshe is a theater owner. Together with Nate, they protect a deaf boy whom the authorities want to put in an institution. A complex and rewarding read.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)

This is a novel in letters, mostly written by Sybil Van Antwerp, a woman in her 70s living in Maryland. Through the letters we learn of Sybil’s career as a lawyer and law clerk, of her being adopted as an toddler, of her marriage and divorce, of her three children (one of whom died in childhood), of her deteriorating eyesight. Sybil writes to a wide swath of people — her family, friends, authors, professors, suitors, and customer service representatives. She is sometimes rash in her writing but mature enough to make amends in the next letter for an offending remark.

The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton (2025)

At the end of high school, Phoebe’s adoptive mom arranges for her to meet her birth parents. She is shocked to discover that they are together and have other children — both older and younger than Phoebe. So why was she given up? The encounter leads to her running away from home and hiding amid the thirteen children of the O’Connor family. The teen O’Connor boys begin to pay Phoebe attention, and she has to figure out both who she is and who she wants to be.