Sisters of a Halved Heart

Nayantara Roy

New
Book cover for Sisters of a Halved Heart
Book cover for Sisters of a Halved Heart
Image for variant 9781643757698
Image for variant 9781643758015
Book cover for Sisters of a Halved Heart
Book cover for Sisters of a Halved Heart
Image for variant 9781643757698
Image for variant 9781643758015

Sisters of a Halved Heart

Sisters of a Halved Heart

Nayantara Roy

View full details

Description

From the author of the highly acclaimed The Magnificent Ruins comes the electric story of two sisters who have to navigate a terrible betrayal from within their family.

Indian-American Mira Guhathakurta is a poetry editor at a distinguished literary magazine in New York. She reconnects with Jack, an old acquaintance from college, and feels as if she might have found her soulmate. All that remains is for Jack to meet her family: her beloved father and sister Joy, a high-powered lawyer. But when Joy commits an unthinkable act of betrayal, the sisters are impossibly fractured and their father's heart is broken. As the sisters navigate their tumultuous relationship and Mira starts over, it turns out that Joy isn't the only one who has been or continues to be dishonest.

In a propulsive story of love and passion and the ultimate pull of family and for fans of The Rachel Incident and The Paper Palace, Sisters of a Halved Heart examines the lengths we will go to in order to make our own narratives of love work out, the lies we tell ourselves, and the ways in which the truth, often right in front of you, can be impossible to see.

About the Author

Nayantara Roy's debut novel, The Magnificent Ruins, was a New York Times Editor's Choice novel of 2024, an LA Times Editor's Pick, a Washington Post Best Book, a People Magazine Best Book and an Apple best debut among others. The book is currently being adapted for television. In 2018, Roy won the Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize for her short story, "8C." Her plays have been performed internationally, in the UK and India. By day, she is the Senior Vice President of Television at Sandbox Entertainment where she acquires and develops original scripted series. She was born in Kolkata and now lives in Los Angeles.

Critical Reviews

"Roy's narrative and lyrical gifts are on full display in this moving and beautiful novel about love in all its forms. A sweeping and lustrous book, Sisters of a Halved Heart has re-wired how I think about familial relationships, how we fall in and out of love, and the purpose of poetry in our daily lives. What a joy to read."

--Michael Dickman, author of Pacific Power and Light and Days and Days

"Witty, sexy, dark, and messy, Sisters of a Halved Heart is a novel of passion, renewal, and family, both related and chosen. It is a story for people in search of love and belonging--a story for all of us."
--Juhea Kim, internationally bestselling author of A Love Story from the End of the World

"Lush, heady, sophisticated, suffused with atmospheric detail that spans continents, Nayantara Roy's novel is so riveting the reader will want to keep turning the pages, but so beautifully written it encourages lingering, savoring Roy's elegant prose. The subject here is love in all its forms: filial, sisterly, thwarted, abiding, romantic, miraculous, and always, always surprising. I loved this book." --Dani Shapiro, author of Signal Fires

"In this deeply emotional novel, Nayantara Roy explores the rivalry and heartbreak of two sisters. Roy has a powerful understanding of family and the complexities of love."--Delia Ephron, author of Left on Tenth

"Nayantara Roy's achingly powerful second novel, Sisters of a Halved Heart, maps the complicated emotional terrain between two half-sisters who try to mend their relationship in the wake of a cataclysmic betrayal . . . As the sisters circle one another warily, bound together by their lifetime connection and their father's uncertain health, Roy examines the ways in which people hurt, question, support, reassure, and even abandon the ones they love most . . . Roy traces the small intimacies of love through weighted moments and shared objects: a borrowed silk coat, a Cat Power song, lamb shanks in cumin gravy, mango pie at Thanksgiving. She gives voice to the shifting layers of family dynamics: adult siblings reverting to childhood roles; people keeping secrets to protect the ones they love; family members learning how to carry on after the unimaginable happens. In the end, Roy's characters achieve both a layered complexity and a certain "hard-won sweetness" to their love. With subtle grace and a fierce, deep compassion for her characters, Roy paints an unforgettable portrait of sisterhood and family."--Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness

"Readers looking for messy, complicated characters . . . will find satisfaction in every drama-laden page of this novel. The struggle for parental love and approval between the sisters feels authentic, [creating] opportunities for discussion on the impact of destructive versus supportive sibling relationships. Roy's (The Magnificent Ruins, 2024) latest is a solid suggestion for fans of . . . character-driven novels."

--Booklist

Publishing Information

Publisher: Algonquin Books
Pub date: 2026-06-02
Length: 352 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.