Sister of Mine
CBC Books | | Posted: May 30, 2018 7:23 PM | Last Updated: December 6, 2018
Laurie Petrou
When is a debt ever fully paid?
Penny and Hattie are sisters in a small town, bound tight to the point of knots. They share a secret they cannot escape, even while it pulls them apart. One night, a match is lit, and Penny's terrible husband is killed — a marriage going up in flames, and offering the potential of a new life. The sisters retreat into their family home — a house of secrets and memories — and try to live in the shadow of what they put in motion. But Penny's husband is not the only thing they are hiding, from the outside world and from each other. Under a cloud of long-held resentments, sibling rivalry, and debts unpaid, the bonds of sisterhood begin to crack. How long will Penny and Hattie demand the unthinkable of each other? How often will they say, "You owe me," and when will it ever be enough? (From HarperCollins Canada)
From the book
She breaks into a run as soon as she clears the flames. Tripping and falling through leaves, galloping like a confused animal, head turned overs houlder, fire in her eyes. She hears a window break like a firecracker, branches snap against her shoulders. Her knees scraped, her hair singed, her breath sour and pressing, pushing out foul words and curses, knowing that she has done it now, goddammit, she has really fucking done it now.
She runs through the forest behind the property, out to the back roads, ducking into hedges with every sound of a car approaching. Eventually she hears fire trucks screaming dimly behind her, where she can see a thin column of smoke if she strains her eyes, lifting her chin and squinting over poplars in the dark sky. A deer startles her, leaping over shrubs, its tail in the air. Her long, thin summer dress is muddy at the bottom, torn in places, a lacy hem pulling away from the skirt. She pushes fingers through her hair. She swears and pants and refuses to cry.
From Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou ©2018. Published by HarperCollins Canada.