The author, on how she and Gordy were united:It was a frigid mid-February day, five inches of snow on the ground with more expected. The sun was just going down when I heard a piteous cry coming from the hill sloping down from my deck. I saw a tiny black smudge racing across the yard, so I ran out to my front porch and saw the smudge about to disappear over another hill beyond my neighbor’s house. Very quietly, so quietly I could barely hear it myself, I whispered, “Puppy?” The little smudge flipped around, came racing toward me, leapt into my arms, snuffled with relief and fell asleep. Suddenly I, confirmed cat lady, had...[read on]About Nancy Jensen's The Sisters, from the publisher:
In the tradition of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, a dazzling debut novel about the family bonds that remain even when they seem irretrievably torn apartLearn more about the book and author at Nancy Jensen's website.
Growing up in hardscrabble Kentucky in the 1920s, with their mother dead and their stepfather an ever-present threat, Bertie Fischer and her older sister Mabel have no one but each other—with perhaps a sweetheart for Bertie waiting in the wings. But on theday that Bertie receives her eighth-grade diploma, good intentions go terribly wrong. A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstandings that will divide the sisters and reverberate through three generations of women.
What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the Depression through World War II and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful, Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by unspeakable secrets. As the sisters have daughters and granddaughters of their own, they discover that both love and betrayal are even more complicated than they seem.
Gorgeously written, with extraordinary insight and emotional truth, Nancy Jensen’s powerful debut novel illuminates the far-reaching power of family and family secrets.
My Book, The Movie: The Sisters.
Writers Read: Nancy Jensen.
The Page 69 Test: The Sisters.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Nancy Jensen & Gordy.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
