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My Sister and Other Lovers

A captivating coming-of-age novel about love, sisterhood and secrets

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My Sister and Other Lovers

By: Esther Freud
Narrated by: Esther Freud
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Bloomsbury presents My Sister and Other Lovers, written and read by Esther Freud.

A captivating coming-of-age novel about love, sisterhood, secrets and betrayal

'Slender, perfect and sparkling ... I'm stricken with love for this book' Meg Mason

'Details the profound and complex nature of love and family ... Spare, moving and beautifully written' Jojo Moyes

‘Freud brings us directly inside the beating hearts of her characters. I loved this’ Miranda Cowley Heller

‘Both delicate and profound – about how relationships bind us together and pull us apart’ Tracy Chevalier

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From the author of Hideous Kinky comes a captivating novel about sisterhood, secrets, betrayal and love.

For as long as Lucy can remember, she’s been caught between loyalty to her rootless, idealistic mother and devotion to her fierce and exacting sister, Bea. From her unsettled childhood to her turbulent teenage years, she’s been forced to make a choice.

But as the sisters come of age and embark on their own experiments – in love, drugs, work, motherhood – they find their lives, and their relationships, increasingly in turmoil.

Can the love they have for each other transcend the damage of the past? Or is the past too dangerous to examine?©2025 Esther Freud (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

Both delicate and profound – about how relationships bind us together and pull us apart (Tracy Chevalier)
Freud's control is masterful
A novel with the sharp tang of memory … I was swept up into this world of visceral intimacies, the fraught but powerful relationships between the main characters more than gripping enough to carry me along … It’s the relationship between the sisters that lies at the heart of the novel, and Freud teases out its various pressure points with delicate, moving effect … This beguiling story of female experience and family ties is well worth the three-decade wait
Freud exposes the tensions of their sisterly bond – messy, mistake-strewn and quietly marvellous – with tender charm
Fact and fiction intermingle, but this elegant novel is more than memoir
In 1992 Esther Freud’s semi-autobiographical debut novel Hideous Kinky made her a name in the books world ... It was charming, fast-paced - and soon made into a film. So a sequel was a risk, but one which has paid off .... It captures everything from crushes to painful heels to heroin addiction, all in intense vignettes. A highly impressive account
Freud is brilliant at capturing the time in a personal and a global sense … The details are so vivid you feel like you’re remembering the events yourself … it demands and rewards close attention
Lucy’s bruising but always engrossing passage from child to adulthood provides the arc here, and we’re deeply with her at every moment ... Freud’s alternately painful and funny story may cleave close to her fascinating life, but it begs larger questions, too, as Lucy’s insight grows into the lasting legacy of her rootless bohemian upbringing
A soulful, semi-autographical tale about finding your place in the world
Gorgeous and sad and gripping and moving - brutally honest about our search for love (Marian Keyes)
Uncovering the raw, unspoken truths of sisterhood - from love and rivalry to unhealed wounds - this novel delves into the best and worst parts of growing up
Esther Freud’s latest work is a moving novel about sisterhood, secrets, betrayal and love
There is a subtle charm to each of Lucy’s lovers that slowly unravels as she learns and relearns the unreliability of everyone around her, while Bea’s distanced love encourages Lucy to open her mind to the possibility of love without possession
Despite the darkness of much of its subject matter, My Sister and Other Lovers is a spirited and funny book ... Above all else, the novel is an exploration of what it means to have a great love that is founded in shared adversity but still move past and through it – less a reckoning with the past than an acceptance of it. It is about learning how to love gently and with forbearance. It is a novel of deep compassion and grace
All stars
Most relevant
Having devoured Hideous Kinky and loved Esther’s other novel I couldn’t love you more I was so looking forward to this. I have always been fascinated by the childhood she and Bella had and this explains so much more, how those early experiences shape the life and relationships they have. It also had many parts which resonate and draw you in leaving you thoughtful about your own experiences. It’s left me wanting to know more, I thinks there’s so much more to say. It feels like a very generous and personal insight and you take from it a desire to be more open less judgmental and more forgiving with those people we love. Thanks Esther please write more soon.

Intimate storytelling about life and love

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I always enjoy Esther Freud's novels. She writes beautifully and there are some funny, sad, and cringy portrayals of relationships. This is a partial return to the ground covered by Hideous Kinky and Peerless Flats but examines the impact of a bohemian and sometimes neglectful childhood in adulthood. Overall I found it gripping. However the final section, with a very odd couple of chapters on the impact of therapy, feels rushed, and Lucy's mother gets off too lightly in my view!
Freud narrates her own work well - never a given - although oddly mispronounces a couple of words. Plaid is pronounced 'plad' not played!
I will be thinking about this novel for some time.

Beautifully written as always

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So happy to find out what happened to Lucy and Bea after all these years. Hideous Kinky is one of my favourite books of all time. So lovely to have this read by Esther herself too. Thoroughly enjoyed 😊

Been waiting for this for years!

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I can see why the author narrated this herself as it’s written in an unusual way. It takes a fair amount of concentration and a few playbacks not to lose the thread. I look forward to reading the book. I think it helps to read ‘hideous kinky’ first to understand the family dynamics.

Multithreaded

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I have to start, now , at the beginning of the book again.
Beautifully read ( of course) a book of such delicacy and finesse. Exquisite detail. Did not want it to end.

Utter joy

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