Prosaic family drama with a twist that comes too late

Dysfunctional families are easy to sympathise with, but difficult to get excited by.

With such recent accomplished tales of inter-generational woe as Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections or Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, the benchmark for modern family tragedy has shifted far from the pedestrian concerns of parents and children who just don’t get along.

In The Ghost at the Table, former Orange Prize winner Suzanne Berne attempts to blend the ...