Other People's Children

Tommaso is just about making it work: travelling abroad for his job, helping his girlfriend with her two unruly sons, and keeping up with the eccentricities of his Italian grandmother, Alma. But as Alma grows increasingly troubled by strange and unsettling memories, Tommaso realises that there is much in her past that he doesn't know. And the more he discovers, the more it seems that the secrets she has guarded for so long might not only overwhelm her, but upend his own precariously balanced life too.

Reaching back to the tumultuous days of the Italian resistance during the Second World War and into the domestic chaos of modern life, this is a story of the past's long shadow, and the families we have and those we make.

Praise for Other People's Children:

“Other People’s Children is a keeper, and should be all over the prize lists this year. It has imagination, wisdom and historical resonance, and looks into its characters and out to the world at the same time. This is a slow-burn book, but it doesn’t half catch fire in the end. Frankly, if it doesn’t tickle the Booker judges, I may as well dig a hole in the ground and drag the shovel in after me.” 

— John Self, The Times

"Alma is a marvellous creation, a mix of stridency and melancholy, who brought up Tom from the age of ten after his father died of an unnamed wasting disease and his mother moved to America. (…) Faccini writes with impact about small domestic details and wider yearnings (…) Tom’s ultimate discovery of Alma’s last secret is left as a final devastating shock in a consummately written work of fate, regret, and resolution"

— Catherine Taylor, The Financial Times

"Spanning the Italian resistance to contemporary London, Ben Faccini follows Tommaso as his grandmother Alma’s memories resurface. As the past intrudes, he questions his family history. Moving between romantic comedy and quiet tragedy, the novel explores how memory shapes love and inheritance" 

— Another Magazine, the Ten Books to Read in 2026

"Other People's Children is generous, intelligent, beautiful - a book that will get under your skin, into your blood and bones. I still think about it daily, and expect to do so for a long time."

— Katherine Rundell

"Like the best Italian agrodolce, Ben Faccini’s writing leaves the reader uncertain whether what they are enjoying is sweet or acerbic. He writes brilliantly about childhood and childishness and, in this instance, about the passions and fears of the very old (…) This should be compulsory reading not just for parents everywhere but for anyone convinced that the challenge of migration ends with the arrival in a place of safety"

— Patrick Gale

"This story about the impact of history on human lives is remarkably sensitively told"

— Jung Chang

"Luminous and compelling... Shines a devastating spotlight on the treatment of Italians in the UK during WWII, and on its intergenerational legacy. A story about the absorption of loss, the fragility of memory, and ultimately, the power of love"

— Alba Arikha, author of Two Hours and Where to Find Me

"What a quietly beautiful novel this is. There are many pages in this book that I read and wanted to carefully pull out and press into the hands of the writers I work with, to say: "Look at this scene, this sentence - this is how it's done"

— Ross Raisin

"Alive with vivid detail, Ben Faccini’s third novel weaves personal and national histories into a deeply affecting meditation on the treasures and burdens passed across time, with the Italian grandmother, Alma, as its miraculous beating heart"

— William Fiennes, author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room