Shred Sisters: A Novel [B2229]

2024 HCDJ in nice clean condition. 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 what's happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the mental illness that will shatter Amy's carefully constructed life.

As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her place-first in academics, then New York publishing, and through a series of troubled relationships-every 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 it's what Amy learns on her road to self-acceptance: No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "From the very first page, Betsy Lerner hooked me with beautifully developed storytelling and writing that kept me turning the pages. The book is filled with tragedy, heartbreak, divorce, addiction, loss, complicated family dynamics, longing, and so much more. Despite the heaviness of the subject matter, the story never lost its emotional pull. Emotional, heartbreaking, beautifully written, and completely absorbing."; "A sad story of how mental illness destroys the life of all family members. I hope that there are better ways today of helping and supporting them."; "The real question is why did I suffer through this triggering book."; "Felt like I was reading a Shakespearean tragedy. How many bad things can happen to one woman?? But overall, enjoyed the journey of reading about a family marked by mental illness."