You Must Be Sisters

by Deborah Moggach

In respectable middle-class Harrow, three sisters are growing up and going their very different ways. Based on Moggach's rebellious student days in Bristol, this is a tale of sex, drugs and curiously uneasy freedom.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Paperback

First published December 1, 1979

About the author

Deborah Moggach is a British writer, born Deborah Hough on 28 June 1948. She has written fifteen novels to date, including The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, and, most recently, These Foolish Things. She has adapted many of her novels as TV dramas and has also written several film scripts, including the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for Pride & Prejudice. She has also written two collections of short stories and a stage play. In February 2005, Moggach was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by her Alma Mater, the University of Bristol . She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a former Chair of the Society of Authors, and is on the executive committee of PEN.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this author is a firm favourite of mine, recently I was delighted to come across her 1982 debut novel in a charity shop and to discover that all the signs were already there to show what a consistently good novelist she would become ... in fact, she has got better and better with each book!
I found this story at times very funny, sometimes very poignantly sad but always, in the author's perceptive way, acutely observed. She captured so evocatively the era in which it was set and yet, because the "coming of age" and family themes she explored remain so recognisable, this in no way "dated"the story. I loved it!

[Sara G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect, this was exactly the book I needed after a couple of mostly frustrating and unremarkable reads. I loved the sisters (especially Claire who is so careful and sensible and kind), I loved how much their parents clearly loved them, I really enjoyed Geoff and his brand of masculinity and care. I loved the story, too. Perhaps a tiny bit predictable at times, and a bit slight in magnitude, it still felt so deep. Like a little slice of a friend's life. It made me miss ... I don't even know what. My sister? What it felt like being a teenager? What first steps into freedom felt like? My best friend from elementary school? A life I hadn't actually lived?

Transition from POV to POV was a bit hard to follow and jarring at first but, as we stayed a bit longer in each POV, it was a lot easier to follow, the issue disappeared after a couple of chapters.

[Sally Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book . Largely autobiographical, it's the story of three sisters. Claire, a newly qualified teacher who just wants a secure uneventful life, Laura, newly at University who feels the need to rebel and be different, and Holly, much the youngest and away at boarding school. As a twenty something in the 1970s I found myself identifying with the lives of these three young women, who although divided by their dreams and aspirations nevertheless shared an incredibly close and loving bond.

[Melanie Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written coming of age novel about sisters; one conformist and one rebel. Their relationship is explored through their similarities and differences and the choices they make in life. Both characters are completely recognisable and the expression of their doubts and uncertainties convey a deep psychological reality. I recognise them and their thought processes. Perhaps a more old fashioned type of novel for these days but just as valid as ever.

[Jan Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it

[Divya · Rating 2 out of 5]

i guess it was too deep for me. Did not enjoy it much

[A J HOOPER · Rating 4 out of 5]

First class story about how two sisters develop differently. Claire coped with life as she finds it. Laura rebels against everything.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two very different sisters - well three, but one doesn't get much of a look in - take paths through the world which are not at all the ones their parents expect. I couldn't really believe the relationships upon which the older two chose to embark, although their reasons were sympathetically described and fairly tragically-credible. The novel was a little tale of a slice of growing up: that bit where siblings turn into people in their own right, their lives suddenly become more of a mystery and their reactions can no longer be predicted. So some big ideas explored but still, somehow, slight.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first novel that feels like a first novel, not because it sounds desperate or forced, but because of the effort that has been put into every sentence, every image, to get it perfect. (I loved the way the puddings at University 'quivered with custard'. Brilliant). I read it again some years after I first read it, and discovered there's a decent story in there amongst it too.

[Mew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was set and written in the late 1970s and was interesting to read a coming of age account that had the authenticity of the time in which it was set. So many similar novels (that I have read recently) are written with the hindsight of the modern world.

[Cath Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah Moggach is up there with Jane Smiley and Anne Tyler in my personal pantheon of female writers. This was one of her very early books (maybe her debut?) but it already has her trademark dry wit and ability to nail a situation in a sentence. Vintage stuff

[Farida · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a very difficult task to put sisters' relationships into words. A heart-warming story, fairly written, painting the soulful love of siblings and how this bond deepens with growing up.

[Irem Akakca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't even explain how boring it is. It is not a romance. It is about two sisters, one of them has no character, one of them has no life. Couldn't get past page 60. And I did something I've never done before. I tried reading different pages of the book. Nothing interesting or seriously, anything happens in the book. Do not read. I repeat. Do not read.