The Alphabet Sisters: A Novel

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: London, England
Your sister is married to your ex-fiancé? Jessica's voice rose to such a pitch Bett Quinlan half expected the lightbulbs to explode. 'We've worked together for nearly two years and you tell me this now?'

Reader's Guide
1. The Alphabet Sisters begins and ends with chapters from Bett's perspective. Why do you think that author Monica McInerney chose to frame the novel in this way? Do you think that Bett is the guiding narrative voice in the story? Why or why not?

Author Q&A: Sisters Talking About Sisters
Monica McInerney, author of The Alphabet Sisters, has a real-time e-mail conversation with her three real-life sisters. Lea, forty-five years old and a management consultant, is in Hobart, Tasmania. In South Australia is Marie, fortythree, a journalist

As girls growing up in Clare Valley, Australia, Anna, Bett, and Carrie Quinlan were childhood singing stars known as The Alphabet Sisters. The unbridled enthusiasm of their flamboyant grandmother Lola was the glue that held them together. As adults, though, the women haven't spoken in years-ever since Bett's fiancé deserted her to marry the younger Carrie. Now Lola is turning eighty and she is determined to reunite the girls for a blowout bash. And no one ever says no to Lola.

Bett, who fled to London after the scandal of losing her fiancé, is hesitant to face her sisters and her hometown-especially since she has yet to find another man. Sophisticated Anna, the eldest sister, isn't too keen on the prospect either, though she's secretly grateful for any excuse to leave her crumbling marriage behind in Sydney. And Carrie, who remained in Clare Valley, is perhaps the most apprehensive. Her marriage-the nominal cause of the sisters' estrangement-is also on the rocks. Was she wrong to have followed her heart and run off with Bett's fiancé?

When Lola shares her special request, that the girls stage a musical she has written, their short visit becomes a much longer commitment. As they are forced to spend more time together, the sisters must confront the pain that lingers between them. Preconceptions and misunderstandings are slowly put aside and the three find themselves gradually, irresistibly enveloping one another once again-until an unexpected turn of events changes everything in ways none of them could have ever imagined....

Layering the lighthearted antics of small-town life with a heartbreaking story of loyalty lost and found, The Alphabet Sisters is an unforgettable story of two generations of women who learn that being true to themselves means being true to one another.

Monica McInerney is the Australian-born author of the bestselling novels A Taste for It, Upside Down Inside Out, and Spin the Bottle. A book publicist for ten years, she is now a full-time writer. McInerney lives in Dublin with her Irish husband and is currently working on her fifth novel..

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