From Betsy Lerner, celebrated author of The Bridge Ladies, comes a wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sisters.
It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight until her stunning confidence becomes erratic and unpredictable, a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake. Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, believes in facts, proof, and the empirical world. None of that explains whatβs happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the mental illness that will shatter Amyβs carefully constructed life.
As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her placeβfirst in academics, then New York publishing, and through a series of troubled relationshipsβevery step brings collisions with Ollie, who slips in and out of the Shred family without warning. Yet for all that threatens their sibling bond, Amy and Ollie cannot escape or deny the inextricable sister knot that binds them.
Spanning two decades, Shred Sisters is an intimate and bittersweet story exploring the fierce complexities of sisterhood, mental health, loss, and love. If anything is true itβs what Amy learns on her to self-acceptance: No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.