I grew up an only girl among brothers and I’ve always, always loved stories about sisters and twins. The way they can be best friends or worst enemies but are tied together nonetheless — could there be more interesting heroines than sisters? Lucky for all of us, bookshelves everywhere are chock-full of all kinds of sister stories, from Enid Blyton to Louisa May Alcott, from Jane Austen to the Mitfords. Here are few favourites of mine:
Novels about sisters
Eve Chase’s The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde brings the four Wilde sisters to Applecote Manor for a seemingly idyllic summer that quickly turns dark with intrigue and trouble. This one toggles back and forth between the 1950s and the present day and was too atmospheric for words. One of my favourite reads in a while.
Sister by Rosamund Lupton is a pacey, twisting mystery, in which a young woman searches desperately for her missing sister, only to discover a whole side to her sister’s life she knew nothing about. if you love yourself some good psychological crime, this one’s for you.
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton moves between wartime Kent where a young evacuee girl is sent to crumbling Milderhurst Castle to live with the Blythe Family, and the present day, when a young woman follows her mother’s footsteps back to Milderhurst to unravel a dark secret in her past. Kate Morton’s books are always meticulously researched and very meaty and I think this is one of her best.
Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was one of the very first books I read in English, I must have been twelve, maybe. It took me a long time to finish, because there were so many words! But to this day I still love the story of the March sisters and the way they cope with difficulties and challenges by always sticking together.
Jane Austen needs no further introduction, but if you read any of her novels (other than Pride and Prejudice. And Persuasion. Oh, and Emma), Sense and Sensibility is a must. Both Elinor and Marianne are so deeply flawed and yet never lose our sympathy and they, too, weather their emotional journey only by facing it together.
Books about twins
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a dark, gothic mystery centred around Angelfield House: Once the home of the March family, Angelfield hides a chilling secret, which is thrown wide open when a young writer arrives to chronicle its family history. Beautifully written and rich with atmosphere, this is a book that constantly plays with identity and duality, including not one but two sets of twins. It’s dark and sometimes a bit circuitous but I can highly recommend it.
Angela Carter’s Wise Children uses many versions of twinhood to highlight themes of illusion, duality and reality by setting two families, the Hazards and the Chances, against a mad-dash Shakespearean canvas of the theatre-world. It’s very out there, this book, and also quite rude, so beware. All in all, a bit of a Marmite-book, but it’s so incredibly cleverly done that it has to be part of this list.
Rose and Ruby are Lori Lansens’ The Girls. Although as different as night and day, they don’t have a choice but to stay together forever. They’re conjoined twins whose mother left them to grow up with an adoptive family and the novel is their ‘memoir’. Told alternately by Rose and Ruby, their voices ring off the page and their story stays with you long after the book is done.
In Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry twins Valentina and Julia live a complacent suburban life until they inherit a flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London from a distant aunt and a whole load of troubles, too. The author’s first book, The Time Traveller’s Wife, was a tough act to follow, but she is a brilliant storyteller and this follow-up novel was very good.
