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Billie Weinstein sees things most people don’t see. Her sister, Cassie, has always been her touchstone, the person she turns to for advice and guidance, the person whose opinion means the most to her. But ever since Cassie left for college, she’s seemed different—withdrawn, obsessed with studying, and she barely eats. Billie can’t talk to her parents about it; they act as if nothing is wrong, refusing to see the changes in their older daughter.
Now Billie has become Cassie’s confidante, the only one Cassie trusts enough to tell the truth to, and Billie is suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar—and disturbing—role; one that drives her to make choices that will forever change the way she looks at the world.
A poignant story of self-discovery, My Sister’s Bones explores the shifting landscape of family, friendship, and love through the eyes of a young girl possessed of a wisdom far beyond her years. In Billie Weinstein we meet a character as funny, vivid, and endearing as any in recent memory, and watch her transformation as she achieves freedom from the seemingly unbreakable web of family ties.
Praise for My Sister’s Bones
“A poignant but also lively and humorous novel, with characters so believable you expect them to rise up off the page.”—New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Berg
“My Sister’s Bones works a miracle. . . . Funny and idiosyncratic, elegant and simple . . . [Cathi] Hanauer gives power and dignity to the subject of anorexia.”—The Village Voice
“A persuasive, well-rendered, and rich first novel about family.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Beautifully written . . . Hanauer paints a disturbing picture of the horrific effects of anorexia on patient and family.”—Library Journal
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 26, 2009 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780307569851
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780307569851
- File size: 3531 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 4, 1996
A medical case guide couldn't present the pathology of anorexia more clearly than this coming-of-sexuality novel does. But Hanauer goes beyond Judy Blume-style fictionalizing of symptoms: her uncanny ear for dialogue creates a dead-on characterization of driven Jewish intellectual snobbery set against Italian working-class earthiness. To keep their two daughters, Cassie and narrator Billie, from growing up spoiled, Michael and Jane Weinstein have chosen to raise them not in North Berry, N.J., where the women's room in the country club offers hair-straightening irons, but in West Berry, a world of Vinnies and Dominicks where wrestling is more important than SATs. Michael is a type A surgeon. His relentless pressure has pushed Cassie into Best Athlete/Most Likely to Succeed high-school performance--which is quickly followed, during her first semester at Cornell, by a descent into anorexia and its attendant anxieties. Because of Michael's denial and Jane's desire to please, the wonderfully sensitive and assertive Billie is left to do most of the worrying about "my sister, hyper and bony, wasting away," even while she grapples with her own issues of desire and achievement. The struggles over control in Hanauer's neatly executed first novel go straight to the heart.
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