Sisterland [Hardcover]

Linda Newbery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2004

When Hilly’s grandmother becomes ill with Alzheimer’s disease, her family is turned upside down by revelations from her life during World War II.

Hilly’s German grandmother, HeidiGran, comes to live with her family after she gets Alzheimer’s disease. As her mind becomes more muddled, secrets buried in her past start to emerge. Why does HeidiGran keep talking about a girl named Rachel? And why does she make racist remarks about Hilly’s friend, Ruben? As Hilly struggles to cope with revelations about her family’s past, she encounters racism and prejudice for herself when a friend becomes the victim of a mindless attack.

This evocative and deftly told novel explores prejudice and its effects on multiple generations in one family.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up-Hilly, an English teenager, has a lot to contend with in this lengthy novel. Heidigran, her senile grandmother, has come to live with her family; her friend Reuben has become involved in a relationship and she is jealous; and she discovers that her father has had an extramarital affair and that her younger sister Zoë is having a fling with a skinhead. Then the plot thickens. Heidigran is increasingly confused about her own identity and that of others in the household. Reuben's Palestinian boyfriend, Saeed, is badly beaten in a bias incident and Hilly is afraid that her sister's friends are at fault. Next, Hilly meets Saeed's brother, and falls in love with him, but when her family realizes that Heidigran has been repressing all memories that she was a Jewish child who came to England in the Kindertransports from Nazi Germany, Hilly's newly revealed ethnic background threatens to sabotage the budding relationship. All this and more is presented in a text that flips around in time, fluctuating from Hilly's point of view to her grandmother's and back again. Such a combination of complex issues is undeniably ambitious. Themes of fidelity to family, religion, marriage, sexual orientation, country, friends, and lovers are all touched upon. Unfortunately, many of the plot elements get short shrift and the book as a whole seems to sink under its own weight.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY
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From Booklist

Gr. 8-12. There's enough for 10 YA novels in this long, powerful story of love, anger, racism, loss, and guilt across generations, which takes place in Britain, Germany, and the Middle East. At the center is Hilly, a contemporary British teen who is in love with a Palestinian. Hilly's sister, Zoe, is dating a young man in a neo-Nazi punk group, and the girls' bitchy talk adds humor to the haunting narrative. Then there's the shocking discovery of Dad's infidelity. Hilly's grandmother, Heidigran, also hides secrets, and now that she has Alzheimer's, she's haunted by the past and her guilt about someone called Rachel. Who is Rachel? Why does Heidigran hate the Jews? And what's the connection with Sarah, a bewildered Jewish child who arrives on the Kindertransport? The time and character switches are initially confusing, but the mystery drives the plot, bringing the political history close to home without slick parallels between the Holocaust horror and prejudice now. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: David Fickling Books (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385750269
• ISBN-13: 978-0385750264
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,159,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars long, but worth every page, May 18, 2004

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sisterland (Library Binding)

As SISTERLAND opens, Hilly poses a question: Is it better to know the truth, no matter how unpleasant, behind surface niceness or not? Her question is prompted partly by her recent visit to a concentration camp in France --- an experience that troubles her more than she ever expected. During the trip, Hilly's sister Zoe points out that their grandmother was German and that she makes frequent racist comments. Zoe even goes so far as to offhandedly call HeidiGran a Nazi, a charge her family instantly and thoroughly denies.

Hilly and Zoe argue constantly as they prepare for their grandmother to move in with their family. HeidiGran, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, experiences confused periods interposed with more lucid ones. She can no longer distinguish which of her memories are secrets that she's guarded from everyone her entire life. The truth is at odds with what her family has always believed. One by one, she begins to share enticing bits of these dangerous revelations with her shocked granddaughters. However, when questioned further, HeidiGran retreats into confusion.

Hilly feels compelled to uncover the truth about her grandmother's past before HeidiGran's memory is entirely erased by her disease. In the meantime, she worries about and is angered by Zoe's new friends, one of whom wears a swastika. Did Zoe's friends attack Hilly's Palestinian friend, injured in a racist attack? Hilly's concerns about racism are even closer to her heart as she begins to fall in love for the first time with her friend's brother.

Along the way, SISTERLAND tells the story of HeidiGran's childhood through flashbacks interwoven into Hilly's story. While the reader is soon clued in on HeidiGran's heartbreaking secret, there's a whopper of a surprise yet in store before the tale is done.

This is a long book, but the pace never lags. I found myself completely absorbed by Hilly's search for, and her family's transformation by, HeidiGran's truth. I highly recommend SISTERLAND for anyone who enjoys an amazingly good read crammed full of family relationships, romance, history, mystery and sympathetic characters.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (...)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sisterland, June 14, 2006

By 

Chelsie Lacny "Chel" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sisterland (Hardcover)

I thought I would like this book. I was obviously wrong, because I was so bored I couldn't even read any more after I got past like, page 50. And that's saying something, because every time I pick up a book I just HAVE to finish it. But this was the one time I honestly couldn't read it.
The reason I gave it two stars was because it might be a good book, but I just couldn't take the time to finish it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, January 1, 2006

By 

Gabbey Dengate (Madison,ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sisterland (Hardcover)

i enjoyed this book it taught me about the holocaust through a young girl's perspective and it had a lot in common with another book I have read about the holocaust.