“Broken Threads” by Mishal Husain, and “House of Glass” by Hadley Freeman.
Two books which illustrate the premise of Family Constellations
“Broken Threads: my family from Empire to Independence” was published in 2024 (4th Estate, London) by Mishal Husain and is a beautiful true account of a family dispersed by political circumstance and the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for India’s Muslim community. The personal story of several generations of one family is told amidst an account of the background social and geographical history, and the violence that ensued both pre-Partition and in the aftermath of the line being drawn between India and Pakistan. London Review Bookshop
I was drawn to reading it after reading “House of Glass: the story and secrets of a 20th Century Jewish family” by Hadley Freeman (published 2020, also by 4th Estate). This was another personal account of a family dispersed by traumatic events in Europe. Goodreads Review
Both books came to life after the discovery of boxes of correspondence, pictures and unpublished memoirs (written and recorded) by the authors now in their own midlife. Both writers now living in the UK, exploring where they had come from, and how their own existence is largely dependent on the way the historical events of the time evolved. Both families faced trauma and in Family Constellations terms, to some extent passed on that trauma to the next generations to deal with. A clear systemic framework appears in both stories.
I found both books difficult to put down. In part because of the clarity and lucidity of the writing, and in part because I connected and identified at a deep level with both stories.
I’ve also heard both authors speak about their own journeys of discovery that led them to write their stories. In the writing and the subsequent speaking about, it is abundantly clear that each generation carries their own psychological and emotional load. And the process of telling their multi-generational stories can I hope, have offered some catharsis and solace to those family members alive today.
By uncovering and revealing some of the family secrets and acknowledging more fully some of the experiences not previously talked about in one generation, these works of emotional processing can bring about healing for those to come.