The best novels on sisters, devout or detached

In this novelized version of what happened to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, her sister Mary narrates the story.

As Henry’s mistress, Mary gives birth to a girl and then a boy. Yet when Anne joins Mary at court she obscures her sister and eventually becomes Henry’s mistress. Henry is so smitten with her that he establishes the Church of England and gets a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Anne gives birth to Elizabeth I but Henry is hellbent on a son.

Although Anne asks him to bring her sister Mary back to court, clearly their relationship is strained over each sister’s involvement with the king. When King Henry no longer wants to be married to Anne and she refuses a divorce, he has her beheaded. Her sister, Mary, attends the execution.

This novel is a dizzying period piece about sisters in a world of limited goods, male power, female aspirations, and the suffocating, dangerous palace life. The sisters are not alike at all, with Mary being purer and Anne invested in becoming queen at any cost.

While most of us know the historical facts, the writing is compelling and the research so complete that we are drawn into the vortex. All to a tragic finale.

In this novel the mother, Orleanna, and then her four daughters, Rachel, Adah, Leah, and Ruth May, narrate the story of their lives in the Congo, where their father, Nathan Price, is a missionary during the 1960s.

It takes place during the Congo’s fight for independence and the drama is high. We realize each daughter’s ‘journey’ as she grows individually, influenced by their father’s mission and by living in Africa. All four sisters have their own destiny.

This is an unforgettable sister story, one where social influences and a life in Africa have a profound effect on the characters. I admire the distinctive portrayal of Rachel, Adah, Leah, and Ruth May, their goals, and place in the world. The backdrop of history in the Belgian Congo is larger than life. There is an underlying sense of sadness and loss, and how burdened women feel.

Lisey Landon, the widow of a well-known author, struggles to know who her husband really was.

In real time, which is one of two storylines, Lisey’s sister, Amanda comes to visit and they search magazines and books to find where Lisey is written up. Amanda is troubled, becomes catatonic and Lisey has to care for her. The other storyline is about Scott Landon, his rough past and how he hovers over Lisey’s life, although he is deceased.

What is striking about this novel is the writing and Lisey’s journey. The reader is drawn in at once. When Lisey is able to enter another world called Boo’ya, as her husband did, she is able to save her sister. And by the end of the novel, Lisey herself is set free of her demons. This novel has stayed with me for years.

In this Austen novel, we witness the three Dashwood sisters and their mother when they move to Barton Cottage. This downgrade has occurred because they are destitute after their father’s death, reminding us of how little agency females had during this era.

Once they arrive at their new home, the older two sisters, Elinor and Marianne, begin their romantic escapades, in search of true love. While there are the ups and downs of courting and making the right match as in most Austen books, this novel is theme based.

The focus is on being prudent and acting sensibly rather than losing oneself to sensibility. Elinor and Marianne represent the two different applications, with Elinor being sensible and thoughtful while Marianne is more emotional and sensitive, thus more vulnerable. 

Jane Austen wrote this novel when she was nineteen years old and it was edited and brought out years later. The disparate approach of the two sisters is realistic and to this day fascinating. It is a timeless story of sisters and how we lead, with our heads or our hearts. 

Iris and Laura Chase, sisters, are motherless, growing up in the 1930s.

Iris, as an old woman, remembers her life and childhood, including a bad marriage. Within the novel is another novel, that Laura supposedly wrote and her sister, Iris published. Add to the mix that it is the story of a pulp science fiction writer named Alex, who was involved with both sisters.

This multi-layered novel reveals that it is Iris not Laura who is a story-within-a-story narrator. And we learn it was Iris who had an affair with Alex as well. Since Laura is not alive to tell the tale, it is Iris who acts on what she discovers. 

This is a dark tale, filled with secrets and aspects of power and lack of power for the sisters. As the reader pays close attention to Iris and Laura, one can’t help but wonder how being without a mother spins their destiny.

I found it hard to put down— I was too curious about how these two sisters actually interacted, what had they kept from one another, and to what end.