A tender, insightful memoir from one of America’s finest novelists — a moving portrait of ordinary lives, enduring love, and the family ties that shape us.
 
In Between Them, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Ford turns his luminous prose toward the two people who raised him. With deep affection and clear-eyed honesty, Ford revisits his parents’ modest lives in Depression-era Arkansas and postwar Mississippi, exploring how their quiet devotion and struggles shaped his understanding of love, resilience, and belonging.
 
Between Them is part biography, part meditation on memory and inheritance. Ford reconstructs the lives of his parents, Parker and Edna, using fragments of recollection, empathy, and imagination. Through his father’s long absences as a traveling salesman and his mother’s stoic independence, Ford paints a portrait of two people who lived without fame or wealth, yet left behind something enduring: a deep and quiet love.
 
Written with precision and grace, this memoir captures the poetry in ordinary lives — the small gestures, sacrifices, and affections that make up a family.
 
💖 Why You’ll Love It
A beautifully written, heartfelt tribute to love and family.
Richard Ford’s lyrical prose and emotional depth.
Honest, intimate, and profoundly human storytelling.
Explores memory, identity, and what we inherit from our parents.
A quiet, deeply affecting work of literary nonfiction.
 
🌟 Perfect For
Fans of memoirs by Joan Didion and Annie Dillard.
Readers who love reflective, literary life stories.
Book clubs exploring family, memory, and legacy.
Anyone who appreciates elegant, introspective nonfiction.
 
❤️ Fans Also Liked
If you enjoyed Between Them, you might also like:
This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff — a powerful coming-of-age memoir.
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard — lyrical reflections on youth and family.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion — love, loss, and remembrance.