I don’t know about you, but at Readings, we’ve noticed a growing trend of novels about sisters. Whether the relationships are fraught, or a source of support in hard times, the depth and complexity of sisterhood seems to be on a lot of authors’ minds.
So, here’s a round-up of new books that explore this foundational bond. Whether you and your sister get on like a house on fire, or if you're of the opinion that you never grow out of sibling rivalry, there’s a book here that’s sure to resonate with you and your sister. And if you want even more books to share with your sis, explore our curated collection here!
My Sister and Other Lovers
Esther Freud
My Sister and Other Lovers is the latest novel from British author Esther Freud – who we're excited to have coming to Readings Carlton for a special event in August! You might know Esther Freud as the author who shot to success with her debut novel Hideous Kinky, or maybe you just know the movie adaptation starting Kate Winslet. Regardless, My Sister and Other Lovers is well worth picking up if you're interested in complex stories of sisterhood.
This new novel explores the tight bonds between two sisters whose flighty mother and unpredictable childhood left them clinging to each other for stability. In some ways, this is a sister-novel to Hideous Kinky, but with the focus shifted from the adventurous and sometimes flighty mother to her two daughters, and exploring in more depth the effects of their unusual childhood.
Pick up My Sister and Other Lovers now, to get yourself ready to hear Esther Freud in conversation at our free event in Carlton on Friday 15 August. Find more details here.
Foreign Country
Marija Peričić
After her macabre novel of historical fiction, Exquisite Corpse, Marija Peričić is back with a novel of contemporary sisterhood. But while Foreign Country is a nice change for readers who are less keen on horror, it still deals with heavy themes of grief and loss.
Eva hasn't spoken to her sister Elizabeta in over a decade – not since Eva's daughter died in a car crash. But when Elizabeta dies suddenly and leaves Eva as the executor of her will, Eva finds herself reconnecting with her sister through the keepsakes and ephemera left behind from her sister's life. But as Eva comes to get to know her sister again, she must also confront her memories of the past and question her own reliability.
Lonely Mouth
Jacqueline Maley
After a somewhat messy childhood, Matilda has made a point of keeping chaos out of her adult life. She gives her all to her job at an upscale Sydney restaurant, talks to her carefree half-sister Lara regularly, and ensures that everything is neatly organised and compartmentalised. That is until her sister comes home from Paris for a visit, and Lara's erratic, absentee father reappears – then Matilda's carefully balanced life starts to come crashing down.
The title, Lonely Mouth, comes from a Japanese expression about a hunger for something undefinable – when you want something, but can't find anything that will sate you – and the compelling pull of this novel is whether or not tightly-wound Matilda will not just find something to satisfy her, but whether she'll acknowledge her own gnawing desire for more.
The Catch
Yrsa Daley-Ward
The Catch explores not just a complex sister dynamic, but a fraught mother-daughter one too. Clara and Dempsey are twin sisters, whose already distant relationship becomes essentially non-existent after their mother is lost in the Thames.
Now adults with separate lives, the sisters are suddenly brought back together when Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like Serene, their lost mother – including the fact she seems not to have aged a day since she vanished. The sisters have opposite reactions to the strange encounter; Clara wants to reconnect with the woman she hopes will provide maternal validation, while Dempsey is distrustful and distant. And separate from the tense spiral the sisters find themselves suddenly locked in, Serene is living a joyful, childless life. Has she escaped the confines of domesticity and motherhood? Or is she simply a woman who has chosen independence as her path to self-actualisation?
Available from 22 July.
The Favourite
Fran Littlewood
Do your parents have a favourite child? Are you a parent with your own favourite, amongst your kids? This tense, revealing novel explores what can happen when these unspoken feelings are suddenly voiced …
Alexa, Eva and Nancy are grown women, each wonderful and messy in their own ways. They've never considered that there might be a hierarchy to how their parents see them. But then, on a family holiday with their parents, their father lets slip that he has a favourite daughter. Suddenly the fault lines beneath the surface become ruptures, as each member of the family has to face what has always gone un-said.
Kakigori Summer
Emily Itami
If you want a story that's more about sisters supporting one another, try this uplifting book about three sisters returning to their childhood home for a reflective and healing summer.
Rei, Kiki and Ai grew up in a house on the Japanese coast, but are now scattered, with Rei in London, Kiki in Tokyo and Ai a pop idol going from stage to stage. But regardless of the miles between them, they remain close-knit, determined to look after each other. So when scandal strikes Ai's career and thrusts her into the public eye for all the wrong reasons, the sisters gather to regroup and look after one another – alongside their sharp-tongue grandmother and the unacknowledged shadow of their mother's death, fifteen years before. The result is a moving and funny look at family, love and loss.
The Original Daughter
Jemimah Wei
This vivid debut explores life in working class Singapore, as two sisters fight for success but find that the triumph of one might come at the expense of the other.
Gen and Arin are estranged, one famous and the other left behind; Gen and Arin are inseparable, intertwined, best friends; Gen and Arin are strangers who have never met, despite being related by blood. Over the course of The Original Daughter, Wei explores the ever evolving relationship between these two sisters, from when Arin first appears on the family doorstep, a prodigal daughter to be folded into their small working class family, to the reunion after years of alienation, reluctantly driven by Gen's mother's failing health.
This story doesn't shy away from the resentfulness that can infect family dynamics, and boldly explores the unvarnished realities of sisterhood.
I'll Be Right Here
Amy Bloom
Finally, let's close out this collection with another story that focuses on connection and community between sisters, rather than the tensions. I'll Be Right Here is a story of an unconventional found family, exploring how they support and stand-by each other through the turbulence of life in 20th century New York.
Gazala emigrates from Paris to New York in the 1940s, when both countries are still reeling after the Second World War. There she befriends two unusual sisters, Anne and Alma, who help her find her footing in her new home, and likewise welcome Gazala's brother Samir when he joins her in New York. The four become increasingly close knit and form an unconventional family unit, together weathering the storms brought by marriages, divorces, children and grandchildren. This is a compassionate story about friendship and family, the connection between sisters and the happiness to be found by living authentically.
