From the acclaimed author of Astrid & Veronika, a lyrical novel of two sisters bound together by a tragic moment from their past. Maria and Emma have not seen each other since their mother’s funeral two years ago. But now, Emma has come to visit Maria at her house in Spain, an unsettling intrusion on Maria’s quiet and solitary life. Over six days in the seaside town, the sisters cautiously recount the years of their separate adult lives. Their walks through the quiet town and evening talks on the terrace reveal almost more than Maria can deal with, until finally, the sisters confront their unspeakable family history. A Sister in My House is a compelling drama of grief and betrayal, but ultimately it is a story of hope and forgiveness.
When two emotionally abused servant-sisters respond to their pent-up hostilities, brutal murder of their mistress is the result. Based on a historical incident in Le Mans, France in 1933.
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
A supernatural exposé of a past system that still has a tight grip on contemporary Singapore and Malaysia. It's August of 1931 in Singapore, sixteen-year-old Lim Mei Mei (Ah Mei) arrives at the home of Eminent Mister Lee on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Month. She has been sold to the family as a mui tsai, an indentured servant girl. At the Lee household, Lim Mei Mei's life education begins. There she encounters the spirit of Ah Lian, a mui tsai, who paid the ultimate price for her mistake. Through Ah Lian, Ah Mei discovers the plight of mui tsai, who are both helpless and powerful, and uncovers a shameful secret lurking in the shadows in the Lee house. Ah Mei also meets and falls in love with Hassan Mohamed, an Indian-Muslim and an aspiring poet, breaking every clause in the rule book of love in 1930s British Malaya. She becomes Hassan's Polar Star, and the young lovers must find a way to stay together. Through a twist of fate, Ah Mei finds a solution that will keep her and Hassan together, at the same time gaining agency that will secure her own future as an uneducated servant girl in British Malaya.
Share the joys of becoming a big brother! With the arrival of a new baby comes many transitions, and big brothers may need a little extra tender loving care to adjust to a new family situation. This sweet story with adorable toddler illustrations by Caroline Jayne Church is just right to share with and prepare an older brother getting ready for an expanding family.
WAAAAA! When Mira's wish for a sister at long last comes true, she's thrilled—but the new baby isn't exactly what she expected. Who knew someone so little could make so much noise! No matter what Mira or her parents do to soothe or amuse her, the baby's reaction is . . . WAAAAA! On the day of her simchat bat, her Jewish naming ceremony, the baby cries--as usual! That is, until Mira steps close to offer her own special gift and the inspiration for her parents' choice of the perfect name. Lesley Simpson's tale of a family adjusting to a welcome change is sweet and sassy and very funny. It's a universal story about families and siblings, as well as a glimpse into a lovely Jewish ritual for welcoming baby girls to the family and the community.
When Stephanie and Cynthia, her little pal from a program at school, begin to spend all their time together, Michelle starts to get worried, especially after she and Stephanie get into a big fight and end up not speaking to each other. Is Stephanie going to dump her for her substitute sister?
From the author of Bough Down, a found, collaged and lovingly amended inquiry into how women disappear Artist and writer Karen Green's second book originated in a search for a woman who had vanished: her Aunt Constance whom Green knew only from a few family photos and keepsakes. In her absence, Green has constructed an elliptical arrangement of artifacts from an untold life. In this rescued history, Green imagines for her aunt a childhood in which she is bold, reckless, perspicacious, mischievous; an adolescence ripe with desire and scarred by violation and loss; and an adulthood in which she strives to sing above the incessant din of violence. Constance--one half of a sister duo put to work performing as musical prodigies in the dirt-poor town of Oil City, Pennsylvania. during the Great Depression--escapes as a teenager to the USO and tours a ravaged Italy during World War II. Soon after she returns to an unsparing life in New York City, she disappears. Green traces her dissolution in a deftly composed trove of letters Constance writes to her beloved sister and those she receives from dozens of men smitten by her stage persona, along with her drawings, collages and altered photographs. Though told mostly from Constance's point of view, Frail Sister is also haunted by the voices of the transient, the absent and the dead. The letters (a few real, many invented) expose not only the quotidian reality of war but also the ubiquitous brutality it throws into relief. Nimble, darkly funny and poignant, Frail Sister is possessed by the disappeared, giving voice to the voiceless, bringing into a focus a life disintegrating at every edge.
Caroline Quiner and her sister Martha are opposites. Caroline is quiet; Martha says whatever comes to mind. But when two rich girls are mean to Martha, guess who stands up for her-- Caroline! The Caroline Chapter Books are part of an ongoing series of Little House Chapter Books.
