The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay

Reviews

“Every now and then—maybe two or three times in a decade—a book comes along that’s so good you want to buttonhole strangers on the street, show it to them, and say: ‘Read this! It will fill you up and make you glad you’re alive!’ The late Beverly Jensen’s The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay is exactly that kind of book. It roars from hilarity to horror to heartbreak, sometimes in the space of ten or twenty pages, then back again to hilarity. It’s profane, loving, hardnosed, and completely beautiful. If you ever loved The Memory Keeper’s Daughter or The Secret Life of Bees, you have been waiting for this book and just didn’t know it. Idella and Avis, the sisters from Hardscrabble Bay, stole my heart. They’ll steal yours, as well. Read this book. And buy a copy for your best friend, because you’ll want to keep yours.”

“The story of these two sisters, Idella and Avis, travels from Canada to New England, but mostly it travels through their lives and hearts, and it will travel through your heart, as well.”

“An original voice, sharp witted and big hearted, as if a rambunctious and deeply troubled family out of William Faulkner’s Mississippi had been tempered instead by the snowy reaches of the North.”

“Bernadette Dunne has a pleasantly hoarse, easygoing voice that seems to grow increasingly textured and wiser as the novel progresses and the sisters age. Her clear emotional tones amplify the scenes as she travels with Idella and Avis from tragic childhoods through humdrum adulthoods to comic endings. Without awkward exaggeration, she creates a unique personality for each character, male and female.”

“The harsh life and times of the sisters is presented in sharp detail through their own eyes, with issues of class and gender revealed along the way. From their rocky beginnings through their father's death and their own old age in 1986, the sisters' tale remains compelling.”

“Dunne’s reading captures all the poignant moments in the story. She does a fantastic creation of both French and Danish accents…Dunne’s reading expresses the happiness and sadness that govern the lives of the sisters, capturing all the emotions whether humorous or heartbreaking. Jensen has a true gift for describing the beautiful scenery in the Northeast where the story is set.”

“Published posthumously, Jensen’s debut is a rich cycle-of-life narrative…Straightforward yet lyric prose and an eye for the crucial detail bring the Hillocks’ world vividly to life.”

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