To belong to a family is to be woven into a collective story, like it or not. But who gets to decide when that story goes public?

Usually, of course, it’s the writer in the family, a fact underscored by the torrent of tell-all memoirs in the past decade or so. As we readers sift through the spilled beans, it’s impossible not to speculate about the behind-the-scenes battles that must often precede or follow publication. Blood relations, indeed.