90 Brothers and Sisters

Book excerpt: 90 Brothers and Sisters could be one of the funniest and saddest books you have ever read. Two idealistic young people from Chicago move into a remote Appalachian area of Kentucky in the 1930s, and end up with a family of nearly 100 children, and not a cent to their names. Told from the astonished and sometimes indignant viewpoint of their only biological child, this rollicking tale has so much heartwarming goodness and chilling danger built into the plot that what began as a novel turned into a documentary because it was "too unbelievable". Originally published by Harper and Row in 1978, this book is now going on line for a new generation of readers.