How'd I Miss This Book? A series about catching up on older reads.  Credit: @alicelippart They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple I picked up this book when I was in London a few years ago visiting Persephone Books, a British publisher and bookseller that publishes lost or out-of-print work written by (mostly) women in the 20th century. Dorothy Whipple's work was most popular during the interwar period — so much so that two of her novels (including They Were Sisters) were made into films in the '40s — but her brief period of fame didn't carry into the second half of the century, and I personally had never heard of her when I visited the bookstore. Persephone-published books all have the same light grey cover, chic and uniform. I honestly have no idea why I picked up They Were Sisters specifically among that sea of grey book jackets, but this novel was such a lovely surprise of a read.
The three Field sisters grow up close and protective of one another but, as they age, their lives unravel and diverge dramatically as a result of the very different marriages the sisters enter into. Whipple’s writing is clever and character-driven, and her unflinching examination of the impact of domestic violence on the psyche and family unit feels particularly radical knowing the book was originally published in 1943. They Were Sisters reads like a bleaker take on the Austenian trope that a marriage to the seemingly “right” person is an inherently good thing. While Austen’s sunny-marriage-plot heroines’ conclude their stories with wedding bells, Whipple complicates the narrative that marriage is an unambiguous means to a happy ending. Get your copy. —Jillian Karande
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