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Half-Life of a Stolen Sister
Half-Life of a Stolen Sister | Rachel Cantor
2 posts | 3 read
Reimagines the lives of the Bront siblingsCharlotte, Emily, Anne, and brother Branwellfrom their precocious childhoods, to the writing of their great novels, to their early deaths. A form-shattering novel by an author praised as laugh-out-loud hilarious and thought-provokingly philosophical (Boston Globe). How did sisters Emily, Charlotte, and Anne write literary landmarks Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey? What in their lives and circumstances, in the choices they made, and in their close but complex relationships with one another made such greatness possible? In her new novel, Rachel Cantor melds biographical fact with unruly invention to illuminate the siblings genius, their bonds of love and duty, periods of furious creativity, and the ongoing tolls of illness, isolation, and loss. As it tells the story of the Bronts, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister itself perpetually transforms and renews its own style and methods, sometimes hewing close to the facts of the Bront lives as we know them (or think we know them), and at others radically reimagining the siblings, moving them into new time periods and possibilities. Chapter by chapter, the novel brings together diaries, letters, home movies, television and radio interviews, deathbed monologues, and fragments from the sprawling invented worlds of the siblings childhood. As it does so, a kaleidoscopic portrait emerges, giving us with startling intensity and invention new ways of seeingand readingthe sisters who would create some of the supreme works of literature of all time.
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review
Julsmarshall
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Bailedbailed

This just isn‘t the book for me. Strange and seemingly pointless, it is supposed to be about the Brontë sisters but is maybe in the present time? Glad it is off my #TBR. #BookspinBingo #JoyousJanuary @TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65

Andrew65 Oh no ☹️ 11mo
dabbe #hailthebail! 💜🩶💜 11mo
mdemanatee Oof good to know. I still have it on my TBR. We‘ll see how it gets prioritized. 11mo
See All 6 Comments
LeahBergen Yikes. I‘m usually up for any sort of Brontë related read, too. ? 11mo
Julsmarshall Love that @dabbe ! I usually am too, @LeahBergen but this wasn‘t the one for me. You might like it, @mdemanatee , it may just be too out there for me. 11mo
TheAromaofBooks Some books just don't click. Is there actual thread in the cover? 11mo
49 likes6 comments
review
TorieStorieS
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Panpan

I‘m not really sure what I just listened to… this re-imagining of the Brontë sisters‘ (and brother & father‘s) lives certainly isn‘t what I expected. “Form-shattering” as the blurb states is quite apt. Each chapter shifts perspectives, & even time-periods, giving insight into proposed emails that Charlotte would write. I think I wanted something more based in fact, though I did listen throughout to see if the author pulled it together. She didn‘t.