2009
First Published
4.09
Average Rating
272
Number of Pages
When Jessica Handler was eight years old, her younger sister Susie was diagnosed with leukemia. To any family, the diagnosis would have been upending, but to the Handlers, whose youngest daughter Sarah had been born with a rare congenital blood disorder, it was an unimaginable verdict. By the time Jessica Handler turned nine, she had begun to introduce herself as the “well sibling;” and her family had begun to come apart.Invisible Sisters is Handler’s powerfully told story of coming of age—as the daughter of progressive Jewish parents who move south to participate in the social-justice movement of the 1960s; as a healthy sister living in the shadow of her siblings’ illness; and as a young woman struggling to step out of the shadow of her sisters’ deaths, to find and redefine herself anew. With keen-eyed sensitivity, Handler’s brave account explores family love and loss, and what it takes not just to survive, but to keep living.
Avg Rating
4.09
Number of Ratings
236
5 STARS
41%
4 STARS
36%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads
Author
Jessica Handler
Author · 4 books
Jessica Handler is the author of the novel, "The Magnetic Girl," an Indie Next pick for April 2019 and a SIBA "Okra Pick." The Wall Street Journal called "The Magnetic Girl" one of the ten books to read in Spring, 2019, and Kirkus awarded the book a starred review. She is also the author of the craft guide," Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief," and the memoir, "Invisible Sisters," named one of the "Twenty Five Books All Georgians Should Read" and Atlanta magazine's "Best Memoir of 2009." Her nonfiction has appeared widely, including on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Brevity, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and More Magazine. Honors include residencies at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts & Sciences, a 2010 Emerging Writer Fellowship from The Writers Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and special mention for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. She teaches workshops in creative writing and memoir. Jessica holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte (N.C.) and a B.S. in Communication from Emerson College in Boston. She used to work in television, but did not not push the broom behind the elephant. Usually, she served as mahout - driving the (allegorical) elephant - if he was a member of SAG or AFTRA. Rock stars do not scare her.
