This follows different members of the same family as they go on holiday throughout the decades, from 1930s Blackpool to 70s Algarve to 2000s New York. Although I love the premise I have to say this was just a *fine* read – enjoyable enough for a holiday but not anything that will stick in my mind!

Multi-generational family saga. I couldn't put this book down and read late into the night. Such engaging and loveable chatacters. I adored this book!

Getting Away by Kate Sawyer is a beautifully written, multi-generational family saga that swept me away from the very first page.

Told through the lens of family holidays over a span of ninety years, this is a story about love, secrets, trauma and resilience – one that manages to be both nostalgic and deeply moving.

The premise itself is clever and original.

By dropping in on the same family only during their holidays – from seaside trips in the 1930s, Butlins camps in the 60s, package tours to Spain in the 70s, all the way to more modern getaways – Sawyer not only maps the changing dynamics of the family but also captures the evolution of British holidaymaking.

The result is both intimate and expansive, mixing personal drama with social history.

Sawyer excels at creating characters who feel utterly human. They are flawed, complex, sometimes frustrating, but always believable.

Over the decades we watch them grow, stumble, fall in love, make mistakes, and carry secrets that ripple across generations.

Themes of domestic abuse, sexual assault, infertility and sexuality are woven into the narrative with sensitivity, adding depth without ever feeling heavy-handed.

At the same time, there are moments of joy, humour and tenderness that keep the book from becoming weighed down by its darker threads.

The settings are vividly brought to life – I could feel the sand between my toes, taste the first exotic foods they tried abroad, and sense the excitement of stepping onto a plane for the first time.

It’s an evocative, sensory reading experience that transports you through time and place with ease.

If I have one minor quibble, it’s that with such a wide cast spanning decades, it can be a little tricky to keep track of who’s who at times. A family tree would have been a helpful addition. But this is a small point in what is otherwise a stunningly crafted novel.

It is profound, original, and filled with heart. A book that lingers long after the final page – and one I wholeheartedly recommend.

Perfect for anyone who loves a sweeping family saga with real emotional depth.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the perfect book to take with me on holiday ! It is a story of a family told over a series of summer holidays and the poignant events that happened at the time and shaped how the rest of their lives were lived. It spans 90 years in total – starting in the 1940’s with the Smith family going to the seaside for the day. I loved some of the characters ( some were very annoying ! ) and loved hearing how they had grown over the years and sometimes wanted to know more than the snippets of their lives that I was reading. I read this in a day ( sat by the pool!) and really enjoyed it .

This already ticked all the boxes. I was in a bit of a reading slump and I’ve had several DNFs in recent months. Kate Sawyer has really hit the mark with this lovely story which spans four generations of love, drama, intrigue, secrets, and history. It really is wonderful, and I was well invested with the characters. The story was mostly told on a correct timeline, although there were several decades often jumped in order to introduce fully fledged characters, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces and their counterparts, et cetera. This is a great domestic story which highlights cultural and historical differences in.’ acceptable.’ Relationships and attitudes. I very much enjoyed it and sped through it in three days.

I was a huge fan of The Stranding, so jumped at the opportunity to read the latest offering from Kate Sawyer.

Like The Stranding, it is a deep dive into one family. It gives snapshots of them on holidays at key moments in their lives over 50-60 years, following three generations.

However, perhaps because it was over a wider period, or more people were involved, I didn't feel as invested in most of the characters. I enjoyed reading it (in fact, I raced through) - but something about it didn't leave me as emotionally bereft when tragedy struck, or as invested in their growth.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book - I absolutely did, and spent hours reading it even at a festival! It would be perfect holiday reading too. Overall, you could do a lot worse than reading this.

Getting Away by Kate Sawyer is a family saga that follows the Smith family on holiday from the 1930s through to the 2020s. It is very different to Sawyer’s debut The Stranding. It covers many characters in the family of this inter-generational story but for me, at times, the snippets into their lives felt too short before you were then meeting a new generation of the family or discovering that a relationship had broken down. I did however love how Sawyer seamlessly dealt with the changing times and attitudes as the story moved into modern day - nothing felt forced or wedged in. I would have like a better examination of how the family viewed Tommy and Debbie’s relationship and that is an example of where the snippets were not developed enough for me. It is not a bad complaint to be left wanting more. Overall, a compelling read.

💬 My Bookish Thoughts
What a fascinating and immersive read. I loved the concept of following a family across decades through their holidays — watching how their relationships evolve, secrets simmer beneath the surface, and British holiday culture changes over time.

I felt completely absorbed in the dynamics between the characters. It's got everything: love, heartbreak, secrets, and travel — all set against the backdrop of sun, sand, and shifting tides.

A real page-turner to lose yourself in — especially by the pool or on the beach. The cover perfectly captures the vibe of a nostalgic family holiday snap.

This was my first Kate Sawyer novel… but it won’t be my last.

🙏🏼 Huge thanks to @netgalley, @bonnierbooks_uk, and @katesawyer for the gifted digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was really looking forward to reading this title having loved Kate's writing since The Stranding and it did not disappoint. Telling the story of a family through the arc of family holidays was a really unusual approach but it worked so well and I found myself gripped by the various plot lines of each family member. The changing times and social mores in each decade was also brilliantly described - the human condition writ large and a wonderful insight into social history. Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and advance copy.

Getting Away is a cleverly conceived and beautifully written family saga, the story of the Smith family spanning from the 1930s to the present day.

What makes this book somewhat different is that we only dip into the family’s life in each decade when they are on holiday, where a chance to relax also offers a chance to reflect, on both good and bad.

What I love about Sawyer’s writing is the way in which she gets to the heart of complicated family dynamics, treats challenging subjects with remarkable sensitivity and ensures the reader becomes fully invested in her characters. It is a story full of emotion, there is much that will move you as you take the utterly believable characters to your heart. And with an ending that takes the story full circle, I for one felt sad to be leaving the complicated but enthralling world of the Smiths behind.

I have loved Sawyer’s previous books but I loved this even more - she has definitely been added to my auto-buy list!

I really enjoyed this book. It is a family saga, starting in the 1940s, following the story of the Smith family. What is different is that the story unfolds on family holidays as the years go by. This gave it an interesting edge. I liked the characters and there were lots of twists and turns in the story.
Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

The first time she went to the seaside Margaret was entranced, the second time ended badly. Throughout her life and the lives of her extended family, holidays have been central and then bring to the surface all the changes and events in their lives.
This is a rather hypnotically lovely book to read. The idea is great, a family story told through a series of holiday vignettes and this allows Sawyer to explore lots of different themes. I loved the fact that even the most horrific events were not described in detail - rape, murder, cancer - instead they are alluded to in the middle of telling the personal stories of the protagonists. There are lots of little storylines that weave around each other over the course of book and each is short and beautifully formed. A reflection of the times as well as the people, this is a book that satisfies.

Familiar with the author, I was delighted she had a new novel.  Her characters were rich and relatable, very well written.  There was a dual narrative running throughout the story. The book centred on Leo and Emma, a married couple.  Leo worked as an obituary writer and Emma as a prominent marine biologist who starred in a BBC documentary series.  The book contained frequent references to the sea and marine life, I found this a great feature of the book. 

The book explored many themes and was much more than a romantic read, it read like a thriller at times with the slow build up and tension of a big secret being revealed.  The power of guilt and the impact that hiding big life events has is evident, the past always catches up.  Overall, I found this to be a very engaging read- I really enjoyed the pace of it starting slow and then building from there.  It ebbs and flows beautifully and is full of emotion.

A stunning read about holidays and underpinnings and secrets which can occur even during the happiest times. The stigma of the ‘perfect holiday’ was thoughtfully and effectively eliminated through the stunning writing and demonstrations of secrets and the developments/changes which each generations of family holidays go through within the story. The flips going backwards and forwards in time between each generation of family holidays did increase processing time needed to fully understand the story. However, this was the style of writing needed to be able to capture the imperfections and secrets which can occur in a family holidays did and to handle the more delicate issues so well in the book. If you want a summer holiday read with the basis of a seemingly perfect family holiday but that comes with added twists of various secrets and mystery, I would highly recommend this read.

Synopsis-Margaret Smith is at the beach.
It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known.
The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time.
Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end -- and secrets are revealed.

#mythoughts
I love a good family saga, and this one is definitely a treat. Spanning from the 1930s to the 2020s, the novel follows the lives of the Smith family through generations, capturing the changing times, traditions, and emotional landscapes of family life.

The story opens with Elizabeth, her husband Jim, and their young daughter Margaret on a coach trip—a classic British works outing to the seaside. The setting evokes a strong sense of nostalgia, from bucket-and-spade holidays to later trips to the Costas, reflecting the evolving nature of British family traditions.

We’re also introduced to Bill Lacey, the factory owner who has a history with Elizabeth (or Betty, as she was once known). This connection hints at deeper storylines to come, adding emotional depth from the start.

This is a character-driven novel that gently threads and weaves through the decades. It allows you to grow with the characters, feel their triumphs and heartbreaks, and witness the ripple effects of the choices they make. It’s both heartwarming and poignant, perfect for those who enjoy stories rich with emotional insight and family history.
I did start this on audio but I could not connect with the narrator so picked up the book instead another triumph from Kate Sawyer

This is a very wide-reaching novel, looking at the lives in a single family spanning several decades. There's so much going on but at the same time it's just a story of the ups and downs, and events, of one family. The plot is their lives unfolding.

The story is told from different decades and from different family members' perspectives. As such it takes in all aspects of life. Maggie is one of the main characters, who we meet first when she's a child going to the seaside with her parents Jim and Betty. She's excited to be going but her mum seems uptight. It's one of many instances where the children of the family sense something is going on with the adults but are kept from knowing exactly what.

It turns out that Betty is nervous because Bill Lacey, the owner of the place where Jim works, is going to be there. But Betty has also had more to do with Bill than many people know.

Sawyer is great at telling us about very serious and distressing events, and then moving to the next period of time. So we get hints that something unpleasant happens to Maggie at one of the seaside trips, but it's only over the course of the book that we find out more.

There's a lot in here about what people will do to look after those they love. I don't want to give too much away, but finding out that Jim has known one of Betty's deepest secrets throughout their marriage, and has accepted it, is very touching.

The book has everything you'd expect from a novel about a family - infidelities, illnesses, domestic violence, alcoholism. Yet the strength and basic decency of many of the characters, especially I thought Maggie and Robert, was really uplifting to read.

I don't feel like I can talk too much about specifics without giving things away, but suffice to say this is a heart warming and 'real' book about fascinating characters and it is so easy to read. Thanks to Netgalley for the access.

Kate Sawyer’s latest novel is utterly charming, and beautifully readable, full of stories of love, connection and family. As soon as I started reading it I was mesmerised by both the storyline and the wonderful writing that swept me up.

It’s the story of one ordinary family connected through the generations. The threads that link back and forward are beautifully woven in, with Easter egg clues sprinkled throughout, giving you those moments where you stop and revisit what you have already read, looking at it with fresh eyes.

It starts with a present day family trip to the beach and then swiftly rewinds almost a century earlier to Margaret visiting the same beach with her mother and father. We know that Margaret is one of the family members in the present day family set up, but now we wind back to her childhood and memories of her own parents.

Each character is treated with such care and tenderness they felt very real and very special. I’m sorry to say I haven’t read Kate Sawyer’s earlier books yet but I am rushing back just to sort that out right now. She is a very gifted and talented author with a special gift for taking an everyday situation and drawing out the treasures buried within it

Getting Away is a beautifully written, easy-to-dive-into novel that captures the complexities of relationships, identity, and starting over. Kate Sawyer has a gift for creating characters that feel real and relatable, and the story flows with a quiet intensity that keeps you turning the pages.

The writing is thoughtful but never heavy. There’s a gentle emotional pull throughout the book that lingers after you’ve finished. It’s heartfelt without being overly dramatic, and the themes of change, healing, and self-discovery are handled with a refreshing lightness.

If you’re looking for a book that’s engaging, insightful, and ultimately uplifting, Getting Away is a wonderful choice.

Kate Sawyer is one of my favourite contemporary fiction writers. The Stranding is an all-time favourite book of mine, and This Family is a gorgeous, immersive family saga reminiscent of writers past. And so, Getting Away was a hugely anticipated read for me, one I preordered in hardback.

Before exploring what didn’t work for me, let’s look at what is done well. The plot device or hook is very clever - this is the story of generations of the one family, and the holidays they take over the course of almost a century. It charts their lives, loves and losses, their secrets, lots and heartbreaks.

The author captures the zeitgeist of each decade really well, with little cultural references sprinkled in to ground you in the times you’re reading about. She charts the changes in society, among them women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, equality, class, wealth, and so on.

What didn’t work so well for me was the characters themselves. Because we’re dipping in and out of their lives in vignettes, we’re only really getting glimpses of who they are and so I never really became attached to any of them, bar perhaps Maggie/Margaret. There was one plot point that I felt was never resolved (involving Penny and Susan) and I kept wondering if I had missed something.

Lovely writing, a clever premise, an atmospheric summer read, but perhaps just a bit laboured by the end, constrained by the plot device. Still going to preorder whatever Kate Sawyer writes next. 3.5/5 ⭐️

'Getting Away', the new novel by Kate Sawyer, is the perfect holiday read. In it's setting of a family's holiday through the decades from the 1930s to the 2020s the story of the generations is told with it's ups and downs and many secrets. It is such a clever and unusual way of narrating a family drama. The author describes the different characters very well and we get to know them and their thoughts as the books is told from different points of view. It also gives a good insight into the social history of the UK over the last century.
This is a great and well written novel which keeps you engaged throughout!
Many thanks for NetGalley and Bonnier Books for the ARC!