A Sister in My House
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Honest and moving, this intense story carefully tracks a relationship stunted in childhood but given a second chance.
One sister have I in our house,
And one, a hedge away.
There’s only one recorded,
But both belong to me.
Maria has found a sanctuary in a rented house, overlooking a small Spanish village by the sea. She is coming to terms with losing the love of her life. But her solitude and the places that have become special to her are about to be encroached upon by the arrival of her younger sister, Emma.
Will the intrusion only serve to evoke the bad memories of childhood or will the impending visit help them restart their lives?
This is a moving and heart-warming story of two sisters negotiating personal tragedies, past alienation and their own failings to try to come together in understanding and love.
‘It is beautiful, sad and hopeful.’— Norran, Sweden
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using spare prose and keen insight, Olsson (Astrid & Veronika) explores how two estranged sisters come together and face difficult elements of their shared past. Maria, the narrator, lives in the small Spanish town of Cadequ s, where she had planned to move with her lover, Maya, from nearby Barcelona, until Maya died in a car accident. Nearly a year after the accident, Maria's younger half-sister, Emma, comes to visit, accepting an invitation made two years prior at their mother's funeral. Their relationship has numerous complications, including the fact that Emma's husband, Olof, who has just left her, was Maria's boyfriend and lover first. As each day passes, the sisters, awkward at first, become more comfortable in each other's company; they reveal their darkest secrets and enlighten one another about their disparate perceptions of their troubled childhoods and who they have become as adults. The sisters' relationship is ultimately (and satisfyingly) transformed, as are their self-understandings, clarified by the outside perspectives they give each other. While the author solidly explores each sister's distinct arc, an underlying lack of heart and depth undermines the power of the story.
