Author Description

“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 “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 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.