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Once We Were Sisters

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Once We Were Sisters

By: Sheila Kohler
Narrated by: Sheila Kohler
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About this listen

A powerful and heartbreaking portrait of the bond between two sisters, in life and beyond death.

Once We Were Sisters is the story of Maxine and Sheila Kohler. Growing up in the suffocating gentility of 1950s South Africa, the girls plan grand lives for themselves that will bring them out of the long shadow cast by their father's death and their overbearing mother's bullying. Maxine is just shy of her 40th birthday when her husband, a brilliant and respected surgeon, drives their car off the road and kills her. Devastated, Sheila returns to South Africa, determined to find answers to her sister's sudden death at the hands of her husband. More haunting, however, are the questions. How had she failed to protect her sister? Was Maxine's murder a matter of accident or destiny? What lies in the soil of their troubled motherland that condemns its women to such violence?

Powerful, moving and tragic, Once We Were Sisters is an act of love and an extraordinary account of an unspeakable loss.

©2017 Sheila Kohler (P)2017 Blackstone Audio Marriage Africa

Critic Reviews

''A rich and poignant memoir.'' (J.M. Coetzee)
''Beautiful and disturbing.... It is a tragic tale, with echoes of cultural sexism and misogyny, yet a triumphant story of a young woman's liberation from this culture and her emergence as a writer.'' (Joyce Carol Oates)
All stars
Most relevant
Fabulous book, compelling true story, heartbreaking but the narration by the author drives the story forward. You will not be able
to stop listening. Brilliant.

Utterly compelling story

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Given that the substance of the story is so sad, I did find it intriguing to learn about South African society as it was at that time. Beautifully narrated by the author, bringing me to tears many times.

Loved it

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Disjointed and too random to follow, there was no flow to any of it, it was like the author had just written down her thoughts as the popped into her head.

Couldn’t even finish it

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.