Devoted Sisters [Kindle Edition]

Two elderly sisters, Lizzie and May, have isolated themselves from the world for many years. Lizzie is afraid of the dangers of modern living and May is fragile both in body and mind. They are bound together by a promise made to their mother. Lizzie must look after May, May must obey her older sister.

Alison Buck is fine and elegant writer and always able to get inside the mind of her characters. Gradually the sisters' relationship breaks down and we become aware that they are not 'seeing' the same things. They are hallucinating and becoming irrational in their thought patterns. Reference is made several times to the sisters growing their own cereal to add to bread - I put two and two together! The ending is dramatic but under the circumstances, believable.

Alison can write beautiful description and sinister, threatening nightmare. The juxtaposition in the same story is delightful. A jolly good read, this!

I really enjoy stories about relationships so I thought I'd love Devoted Sisters but unfortunately I didn't. I found the two characters interesting and frustrating in equal measures but I never really got properly into this book. I kept on reading just to get through it at the beginning but it did sort of grow on me as I carried on. I felt really disappointed in the ending though - wasn't what I expected but not in a "twist in the tale" kind of way. I don't think I would recommend this to others - It wasn't terrible but wasn't brilliant either.

As with a former reviewer I came to this book via one of Ms Buck's other works: Abiding Evil. That volume was an exciting horror story: memorable, terrifying, mesmeric and beautifully written. Having enjoyed it so much I had high hopes for this. I wasn't disappointed.

Devoted Sisters starts from an extremely simple premise: the lives of two elderly sisters are broken out decades of routine by the arrival of a stranger. There have been many stories of this sort across centuries of literature. However, to think that you will be getting a twice told tale, when picking up this novel, would be wrong. In the hands of Ms Buck while the premise maybe simple the execution and the exquisite layering of nuance and import, in the development of the character and meaning, is anything but.

As the narrative develops, Ms Buck takes us back and forth across seemingly well trod ground, only to show that what the eponymous Sisters and we the readers have taken as reality, turns out to be a tapestry of fictions, half truths and self taught lies.

With an almost forensic delight in the exploration of pertinent details, we are given the opportunity to explore past moments, where the discontinuity between what the Sisters tell themselves, each other and us becomes ever more apparent. And therein lies the heart of this novel: the difference between truth and the desire to believe an easier and more comfortable lie.

In layer after successive layer we are drawn away from comfort and into truth. Truth can, often is, painful, but that is its power and the power that drives Devoted Sisters and by which it earns the right to the consequence of tell these truths. It should be noted that Ms Buck harnesses this power with writing which is both delicate and, in odd moments, searing. She has a rare gift for balancing the needs of a story, clever pacing allows her the space to mix emotional insight with descriptive prowess and give both dramatic weight.

In the final analysis Devoted Sisters is a tremendous achievement and deserves a wide and devoted readership. Another fine novel by Alison Buck. The woman is a writer of real and memorable talent.