No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister.
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 academia, 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. Perfect for fans of emotional family dramas and quirky contemporary literature such as I'm Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors.
'A sensitive exploration of loving someone with mental health issues, with characters you'll fall for' - Good Housekeeping
'Lerner is incapable of writing an unnecessary sentence' - Daily Mail
'I love this book. It moves like a souped-up pickup truck' - Patti Smith, author of Just Kids
'A richly layered family novel that manages to be raucously funny, insightful, and tender... I will be thinking about the Shred Sisters for a long time' - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company
'A brilliantly written, emotionally gripping saga that delves into the complexity of sisterhood, mental health, and resilience... One of the best books I've read in years' - Chloe Cooper Jones, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist
'Shred Sisters is the kind of novel readers won't want to end... 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' - Washington Post
'This heartfelt novel reveals the power of the sibling bond to shape our lives' - People
'Modest moments become revelatory in the wry and incisive Shred Sisters' - NPR
'A bildungsroman overcast with the thick and inconstant cloud of mental illness... Decidedly un-trendy, crescendo-less and restrained, this tragicomic family saga is a Bach prelude to the Rachmaninoff of a writer like Jonathan Franzen' - New York Times
** Longlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize 2024 **
** A New York Times Notable Book of the Year **
** A Good Housekeeping USA Book Club Pick **
** A Best New Book from Bustle and People **
** Nominated for Readers' Favourite Debut Novel in the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards **
This novel contains depictions of mental illness and references to addiction.
