A Sister in my House by Linda Olsson

An interesting read that I don't think I would have picked up on my own. I'm going to get my pet peeve about this one out of the way immediately and I shall not dwell on it anymore: no contractions. When I see entire soliloquies without contractions, my brain dies a little. It feels entirely too formal. Of course there were some, but the monologues were overwhelmingly formal. Also, "Good morning, how did you sleep?" is not a question that invites monologues, but in this book, that's what you get.

Away from the peeves!

Emma and Maria are two sisters who have lost contact with each other. Maria lives outside Barcelona and, on impulse even she can't understand, invites Emma to stay with her for a visit while they are cleaning up at their mother's funeral. Emma seemingly ignores the request until two years later when she emails Maria that she is coming for that visit. Maria is instantly upset and angry at Emma (and, rightfully, at herself) but prepares for the visit anyways. Clearly, these two sisters have, not just issues, but subscriptions worth of problems.

The book unfolds with many monologues and pouring forth of sisterly tears as they finally, actually, talk to one another. We have one sister, Emma, who stayed near home and became the caregiver to a Mother that the other sister could not stand. Maria, after the death of her twin Amanda, went off and never came back.  Neither of those situations are ideal and they naturally created a rift between the two. The rift started when Emma was born and "invaded" the twins space and just grew larger and larger.

Ignoring my peeves, the way this story unfolded was interesting. Little bits and bops of things kept popping up and disappearing and made me (the reader) anxious. "We need to talk about Amanda" was said enough times that I yelled at the book "TALK ABOUT AMANDA". The book ignored me and continued on until it was damn well ready to talk about Amanda. And what a talk it was.

Interesting little book. Definitely worth a read. I'm sure I'm a rare reader when it comes to the contractions and formal language deal, so I'm sure you will do just fine.