Shred Sisters - by Betsy Lerner (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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, but when her stunning confidence morphs into something erratic and unpredictable, she becomes a hurricane leaving the Shred family wrecked in her wake. Put simply, she has no brakes. Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, dreams of winning a Nobel Prize in science. Amy believes in facts, proof, and the empirical world. Except none of that can explain what's happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the bipolar disorder that will shatter Amy's carefully constructed world. As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her place-first in academics, then New York publishing, and through a series of men-every step brings collisions with Ollie. For all that upends and unsettles these sisters, an inextricable bond always draws them back. 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 or hurt you more than a sister"--

Book Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE

No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.

"I love this book. It moves like a souped-up pickup truck." - Patti Smith, author of Just Kids and M Train

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Shred Sisters

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and Best Book of the Year So Far
A Good Housekeeping October Book Club Pick
A Best Book of Fall from Bustle
A Most Anticipated Book from Literary Hub and Kirkus Reviews

"Shred Sisters is the kind of novel readers won't want to end . . . I'm betting the farm it will scoop most lively minds straight into the 'adore' basket . . . Its bright, clean, gallivanting story rewards an open mind and heart with crisp prose, fresh plot turns and dimensional, dishy portraits we can instantly recognize . . . Lerner's ace? Many readers will have known or met a version of each sister . . . We may suppose we can predict this inflamed relationship's trajectory. Yet somehow (a crowning tribute to Lerner), it manages to surprise us. What comes at us, page after page, is new news, for which-laughter and pain alike--we're ultimately grateful. The ride feels real." --Joan Frank, Washington Post

"Told from Amy's wise, wisecracking and tremblingly self-conscious perspective, Shred Sisters is a bildungsroman overcast with the thick and inconstant cloud of mental illness . . . Lots of ambitious books announce themselves; this one doesn't need to. The first novel by Betsy Lerner --a veteran literary agent and editor who has written three previous books of nonfiction--it forgoes all fanfare and conceit as it refines a 20-year coming-of-age into an elegant thread of taut, perfectly paced milestones. The prose is controlled, but neither virtuosic nor spare; the plot, enticing but neither Dickensian nor minimalist. Decidedly un-trendy, crescendo-less and restrained, this tragicomic family saga is a Bach prelude to the Rachmaninoff of a writer like Jonathan Franzen." --Lauren Christensen, New York Times Book Review

"Modest moments become revelatory in the wry and incisive Shred Sisters . . . Change, as we know, is hard; but, there's a moment where the adult Amy, who's been demoralized by loneliness and career failure, spontaneously walks into a hair salon. She's pulled in by a sign that reads: 'Never give up on your hair.' These are the kind of revelatory ordinary human moments Lerner captures with precision. As an affirmation, 'Never give up on your hair' turns out to be a more modest way to declare, 'I will survive.'" --Maureen Corrigan, NPR

"In the veteran author and editor's first novel, Lerner enchants . . . It's exquisitely written, featuring pitch-perfect wit, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into the excruciating pain of being in a perpetual awkward phase, as Amy mostly is. It's as if Lerner is Amy--that's how intimate and emotionally fine-tuned the novel is . . . Drama, disappointment, and despair thread throughout this bittersweet saga, but empathy, humor, and the narrator's sharp yet loving powers of observation make it a joy to read . . . In Amy and Ollie, Lerner has given us a love story for the ages." --Leigh Haber, Boston Globe

"Beautiful daredevil Olivia is the star of the family, but as she goes off the rails, her parents and younger sister Amy struggle for balance. As told by Amy--the smart, quiet one--over two decades, this heartfelt novel reveals the power of the sibling bond to shape our lives."--Marion Winik, People, "Best Books of October"

"Lern-er's sharp sto-ry-telling places her in the canon of Nora Ephron and Judy Blume. Shred Sis-ters

About the Author

Betsy Lerner is the author of the popular advice book to writers, The Forest for the Trees, and the memoirs Food and Loathing and The Bridge Ladies. She received an MFA from Columbia University in Poetry. A publishing professional for over thirty years, Lerner is a literary agent in New York. Shred Sisters is her first novel.