Review by Booklist Review
Through photographs and prose, Croft's genre-blending memoir investigates how chronic illness sickens an entire family. The story centers on Croft's relationship with her sister, or so readers presume: the sisters chronicled within are named Amy and Zoe. Photographs of Amy look the most like Croft's author photo, but other than that, Croft's role in her own story is ambiguous. The sisters have been wickedly close since birth, and like most siblings, communicate in a language all their own. They learn Russian from the same tutor, upon whom they both stoke hopeless crushes. They even get their first periods around the same time despite their three-year age difference. When Zoe is diagnosed with a series of chronic illnesses, their dynamic is permanently altered. While Zoe fights extended stays in the hospital, Amy is fast-tracked to college before completing high school. The divide between them deepens, and Amy is haunted by guilt about her health while her beloved little sister is sequestered from experiencing life at all. A heartbreaking, vanguard, and mixed-media coming-of-age memoir.--Courtney Eathorne Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Man Booker International Prize-winning translator's photo-illustrated memoir about how growing up meant growing away from the younger sister she loved.Changing "names, identifying details, and places," Croft tells the story of two sisters, Amy and Zoe, that draws on events from her own life. Elder sister Amy was in second grade when Zoe had the first of several seizures. Doctors concluded the episode stemmed from a mild concussion, but after another, more violent episode, scans revealed a tumor in Zoe's brain. The girls' parents home-schooled both girls, who developed a rivalry over Olympic ice skaters: Amy favored those from Russia and Zoe those from the Ukraine. When their father hired a Ukrainian-born tutor named Sasha to teach them the language of each girl's respective favorite country, the girls suddenly found themselves vying for his attention. But as Amy uncovered her linguistic gifts, she also found herself falling in love with Sasha, who later killed himself. She began college shortly afterward at age 15, where she indulged her passion for both languages and photography. In the meantime, Zoe, now homebound, was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus. Consumed by guilt for the misfortunes of both her sister and Sasha, Amy fixated on and then attempted suicide. After she graduated at 18, she left Oklahoma for Berlin, hoping to leave behind her troubled home and become "a whole new person." Her travels, which she recorded in idiosyncratic photographs, took her all over Europe, where she experienced the epiphany at the heart of this book. Despite the apparent ease with which she moved between countries and languages, Amy's truest desire was to "fix forever the presence of her sister [and] never let her go" in every photo she shot. Haunting and visually poetic, Croft's book explores the interplay between words and images and the complexity of sisterly bonds with intelligence, grace, and sensitivity.Poignant, creative, and unique. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
