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Family Portrait - Based on a True Story
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"A compelling work of women’s fiction, Family Portrait follows the main character throughout her life while the reader discovers secrets from her family’s past. Chrysteen Braun does a mind-blowing job of building the characters and making them lifelike, lovable, and loathsome.” —Kate Osborn, former editor, Mountain News, Lake Arrowhead
On a warm summer afternoon, Vaso’s family gathers on her grandmother’s porch for a portrait. What appears to be a simple snapshot becomes the opening frame of a layered story told through multiple voices—each member sharing their own version of love, loyalty, and loss, creating a layered portrait of kinship both tender and fractured.
At its center is a young woman who, as a girl, endured an unspoken violation by her older brother. She learned to lock it away, to keep living, to move forward with her life as though nothing had happened.
When her parents die, the bond between brother and sister, once fragile, breaks completely. Her brother, bitter and calculating, questions his sister’s integrity, turning suspicion into estrangement.
Both gripping and reflective, this story of memory and survival explores the ways families protect and destroy themselves, and proves that no portrait ever tells the whole story.
Book Reviews
All families have secrets and are made up of quirky personalities. It’s almost like sitting on the outside looking in as Braun’s characters reveal the patchwork of their personalities in her latest novel, Family Portrait. A great read.
- Elizabeth Conte, award-winning author of Finding Jane and The Chosen Mistress
Braun touches off with a single starting point: a family portrait. From there, readers can turn the pages of a brilliant masterpiece with twists and turns...with each characters truths. She does an excellent job at making her characters real with flaws and all. Wonderful job in creating multi-dimensional characters you can love or hate. I loved following the main character and was truly struck by the secrets she has concerning her brother. It's written in a way that kind of makes you feel like a fly on the wall taking it all in. Kudos to Braun for creating a perfect story for the women's fiction genre. Highly recommended read.
—Kelly M, via Amazon
N. N. LIGHT'S BOOK HEAVEN - Family Portrait by Chrysteen Braun is a new release, perfect for readers who enjoy family saga and women's fiction
Both gripping and reflective, this story of memory and survival explores the ways families protect and destroy themselves and proves that no portrait ever tells the whole story.
Title: Family Portrait
Author: Chrysteen Braun
Genre: Family Saga, Women’s Fiction
Book Blurb
On a warm summer afternoon, Vaso’s family gathers on her grandmother’s porch for a portrait. What appears to be a simple snapshot becomes the opening frame of a layered story told through multiple voices - each member sharing their own version of love, loyalty, and loss, creating a layered portrait of kinship both tender and fractured. At its center is a young woman who, as a girl, endured an unspoken violation by her older brother. She learned to lock it away, to keep living, to move forward with her life as though nothing had happened. When her parents die, the bond between brother and sister, once fragile, breaks completely. Her brother, bitter and calculating, questions his sister’s integrity, turning suspicion into estrangement. Both gripping and reflective, this story of memory and survival explores the ways families protect and destroy themselves and proves that no portrait ever tells the whole story.
Excerpt
By the time my father died in 2011, my relationship with my brother was nonexistent. And then four years later, when my mother passed away, the frayed thread that held us together finally snapped. There was so much anger and resentment between us, we never spoke again.
I’ve waited over ten years to write this story, and now that everyone is gone, I finally have the freedom to do so. We were all so multifaceted, imperfect and fragmented, but that’s what makes up a family, isn’t it?
Equally, if this was to be a true story, I had to be willing to talk about some of the things I did when I was younger that I’d never spoken of: not because they were unforgivable, but because I wasn’t sure anyone would understand the girl I was back then versus the woman I became.
So, for better or worse.
In my case, better.
I’ve left nothing out.
But first, I want you to meet my family—to have them tell you their own stories— so that you’ll know them not just from my point of view, but from theirs as well.
1980
My name is Vasiliki, but I go by Vaso.
And if this were the beginning of a movie, in the background, while the credits were rolling, the members of my family would be making an attempt to assemble on my grandmother’s front porch for a portrait. The patient photographer would be doing his best to organize us by family. But he would be contending with someone who didn’t want to follow the dictates of hierarchy. That would be my uncle. Even though he was the youngest of the siblings, he was the only surviving male—and the only college graduate, and the only pompous attorney, and the most married and divorced—did I say all that aloud?—he wanted to stand closest to my grandmother with his family in front of him, right in the middle of us all.