Lies I Told My Sister

Fiction
Pub Date:  November 1, 2024
5.5 x 8.5 in | 268 pgs
Trade Paperback: 9781988989860
e-pub: 9781988989877

After a nine-month estrangement, sisters  Lily and Rose, are reunited in a hospital emergency room when the younger sister’s husband has been badly injured in a car crash. While waiting for updates, they reminisce about their childhood memories in an effort to unearth the family tragedy - the death of their older sister Tansy. Lily and Rose begin to unravel the lies of omission that pulled them even farther apart.

Lies I Told My Sister is an exploration of how our community of loved ones can both buoy us up or tear us down. How innocently kept secrets can cause profound chasms.

A deeply affecting narrative that explores the most intimate of bonds as tragedy strikes a family and lies of omission and commission come to light.  Ells has tenderly woven a tale lush with grief, fractured dreams and forgiveness as her beautifully rendered characters gradually reveal struggles with fertility, infidelity and missed opportunities.  There is a delicate lyricism to this exquisite tale as Ells gently amplifies the desire to safeguard and protect those who are loved. 

 —Lucy E.M. Black, author The Brickworks, Stella’s Carpet, Eleanor Courtown, The Marzipan Fruit Basket 

About the Author

Louise Ells was born and raised in Northeastern Ontario. After years of travel, she moved to Cambridge and earned her PhD in Creative Writing. She was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2017, and her short story collection, Notes Towards Recovery (Latitude 46, 2019). Louise teaches at universities and colleges in England and Canada and currently lives just north of Toronto, where she can often be found in her library surrounded by books and snuggled up with her cats.