This item is out of stock.
EXTRA 10% OFFSee all eligible items and terms

Once We Were Sisters: A Memoir [Paperback] Kohler, Sheila

InflatableMadness
(353461)
Seller's other items
Contact seller
US $8.82
Condition:
Brand New
Shipping:
Free USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Indian Trail, North Carolina, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Fri, Jul 18 and Wed, Jul 23 to 94104
Delivery time is estimated using our proprietary method which is based on the buyer's proximity to the item location, the shipping service selected, the seller's shipping history, and other factors. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.
Returns:
30 days returns. Seller pays for return shipping.
Payments:
       Diners Club
Earn up to 5x points when you use your eBay Mastercard®. Learn moreabout earning points with eBay Mastercard

Shop with confidence

eBay Money Back Guarantee
Get the item you ordered or your money back. Learn moreeBay Money Back Guarantee - opens new window or tab
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:126585318921
Last updated on May 22, 2025 18:47:30 PDTView all revisionsView all revisions

Item specifics

Condition
Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See the ...
MPN
0143129295_used
Brand
Random House Books for Young Readers
Style
ABIS_BOOK
Included Components
Book
Binding
paperback
Pages
256
Target Audience
General/trade
Item Type Keyword
book
Number Of Items
1
Color
Grey
Edition
Illustrated
Publication Date
2017-01-17T00:00:01Z
Supplier Declared Dg Hz Regulation
not_applicable
Item Name
Once We Were Sisters: A Memoir
Street Date
2017-01-17T00:00:01Z
Product Site Launch Date
2016-04-27T00:14:32.625Z
ISBN
9780143129295
Book Title
Once We Were Sisters : a Memoir
Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
Item Length
8 in
Publication Year
2017
Format
Trade Paperback
Language
English
Illustrator
Yes
Item Height
0.7 in
Author
Sheila Kohler
Genre
Literary Criticism, Family & Relationships, Social Science, Biography & Autobiography, History
Topic
Women, Women Authors, Cultural Heritage, Personal Memoirs, Women's Studies, Literary, Africa / South / Republic of South Africa, Siblings
Item Weight
8.5 Oz
Item Width
5.1 in
Number of Pages
256 Pages
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN-10
0143129295
ISBN-13
9780143129295
eBay Product ID (ePID)
222138928

Product Key Features

Book Title
Once We Were Sisters : a Memoir
Number of Pages
256 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2017
Topic
Women, Women Authors, Cultural Heritage, Personal Memoirs, Women's Studies, Literary, Africa / South / Republic of South Africa, Siblings
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Literary Criticism, Family & Relationships, Social Science, Biography & Autobiography, History
Author
Sheila Kohler
Format
Trade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height
0.7 in
Item Weight
8.5 Oz
Item Length
8 in
Item Width
5.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2016-005921
Reviews
"Young Sheila Kohler abandons the time-warp of 1950s South Africa and heads for Europe on a voyage of self-discovery. Her quest to find out what it is that she desires--a quest that will last decades and is recounted with the seriousness it deserves, lightened with touches of dry comedy--ends in the discovery that she is and has always been a writer. The most striking parts of this rich and poignant memoir--rich above all in sensual experience--reflect on the necessary cruelty of the writer's art, sacrificing the truth of the world to the truth of fiction." --J.M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature "Throughout her literary career, Sheila Kohler has obsessively tried to find closure and justice for her sister's untimely death and, finally, in this memoir she has succeeded in coming to terms with the tragedy by movingly recalling their childhood together and expressing her love for her sister." --Lily Tuck, National Book Award-winning author of The Double Life of Liliane "For unto whom much is given, of him shall be much required: this Biblical verse takes on a tragic ring as this memoir of a privileged childhood ends in murder. Sheila Kohler has put together this heartfelt, suspenseful confession with a lifetime's worth of skill and an abundance of inborn genius." --Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story "Sheila Kohler has written a beautiful and disturbing memoir of a beloved sister who died at the age of thirty-nine in circumstances that strongly suggest murder. Like all of Sheila Kohler's prose work, Once We Were Sisters reveals its story by degrees, amid a richly sensuous milieu of South African white privilege and repression. It is a tragic tale, with echoes of cultural sexism and misogyny, yet a triumphant story of a young woman's liberation from this culture and her emergence as a writer. Highly recommended." --Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award-winning author of Them "This lean memoir cuts straight to the heart of what it is to love--and lose--a sister.  Kohler sidesteps nothing; her private rage, regret, heartbreak, and revelation mingle unforgettably with the public shame of apartheid. Once We Were Sisters is an exquisite and devastating book." --Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ordinary Light "To write a first-rate memoir is to encounter a mystery.  In Sheila Kohler's brilliantly intelligent, beautifully written, sensually detailed, sexy, exquisitely restrained and shocking memoir, there are several mysteries: Why do we act the way we do?  Why are we passive when we should be active, and vice versa?  What does it take for a young woman to find out who she is?  What griefs, what losses must attend that discovery?  How to account for the cruelty and self-indulgence of men, or the willed blindness and guilt of women? 'What is it I have done or failed to do?' the memoirist keeps asking here, and her responses are unfailingly, stringently honest." --Phillip Lopate, author of Being With Children, "Young Sheila Kohler abandons the time-warp of 1950s South Africa and heads for Europe on a voyage of self-discovery. Her quest to find out what it is that she desires--a quest that will last decades and is recounted with the seriousness it deserves, lightened with touches of dry comedy--ends in the discovery that she is and has always been a writer. The most striking parts of this rich and poignant memoir--rich above all in sensual experience--reflect on the necessary cruelty of the writer's art, sacrificing the truth of the world to the truth of fiction." --J.M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature "Throughout her literary career, Sheila Kohler has obsessively tried to find closure and justice for her sister's untimely death and, finally, in this memoir she has succeeded in coming to terms with the tragedy by movingly recalling their childhood together and expressing her love for her sister." --Lily Tuck, National Book Award-winning author of The Double Life of Liliane "For unto whom much is given, of him shall be much required: this Biblical verse takes on a tragic ring as this memoir of a privileged childhood ends in murder. Sheila Kohler has put together this heartfelt, suspenseful confession with a lifetime's worth of skill and an abundance of inborn genius." --Edmund White, author of A Boy's Own Story "Sheila Kohler has written a beautiful and disturbing memoir of a beloved sister who died at the age of thirty-nine in circumstances that strongly suggest murder. Like all of Sheila Kohler's prose work, Once We Were Sisters reveals its story by degrees, amid a richly sensuous milieu of South African white privilege and repression. It is a tragic tale, with echoes of cultural sexism and misogyny, yet a triumphant story of a young woman's liberation from this culture and her emergence as a writer. Highly recommended." --Joyce Carol Oates, National Book Award-winning author of Them "Sheila Kohler's writing is visually potent,  viscerally compelling, and intensely personal. In  Once We Were Sisters  she conjures a lost world of privilege, violence, and repression that has chilling parallels in contemporary life." --Rebecca Miller, author of  Personal Velocity "This lean memoir cuts straight to the heart of what it is to love--and lose--a sister.  Kohler sidesteps nothing; her private rage, regret, heartbreak, and revelation mingle unforgettably with the public shame of apartheid. Once We Were Sisters is an exquisite and devastating book." --Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ordinary Light "To write a first-rate memoir is to encounter a mystery.  In Sheila Kohler's brilliantly intelligent, beautifully written, sensually detailed, sexy, exquisitely restrained and shocking memoir, there are several mysteries: Why do we act the way we do?  Why are we passive when we should be active, and vice versa?  What does it take for a young woman to find out who she is?  What griefs, what losses must attend that discovery?  How to account for the cruelty and self-indulgence of men, or the willed blindness and guilt of women? 'What is it I have done or failed to do?' the memoirist keeps asking here, and her responses are unfailingly, stringently honest." --Phillip Lopate, author of Being With Children  
Dewey Edition
23
Dewey Decimal
828/.91403 B
Synopsis
ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST NEW BOOKS "A searing and intimate memoir about love turned deadly." --The BBC "An intimate illumination of sisterhood and loss." -- People When Sheila Kohler was thirty-seven, she received the heart-stopping news that her sister Maxine, only two years older, was killed when her husband drove them off a deserted road in Johannesburg. Stunned by the news, she immediately flew back to the country where she was born, determined to find answers and forced to reckon with his history of violence and the lingering effects of their most unusual childhood--one marked by death and the misguided love of their mother. In her signature spare and incisive prose, Sheila Kohler recounts the lives she and her sister led. Flashing back to their storybook childhood at the family estate, Crossways, Kohler tells of the death of her father when she and Maxine were girls, which led to the family abandoning their house and the girls being raised by their mother, at turns distant and suffocating. We follow them to the cloistered Anglican boarding school where they first learn of separation and later their studies in Rome and Paris where they plan grand lives for themselves--lives that are interrupted when both marry young and discover they have made poor choices. Kohler evokes the bond between sisters and shows how that bond changes but never breaks, even after death. "A beautiful and disturbing memoir of a beloved sister who died at the age of thirty-nine in circumstances that strongly suggest murder. . . . Highly recommended." --Joyce Carol Oates
LC Classification Number
PR9369.3.K64Z46 2016

Item description from the seller

About this seller

InflatableMadness

97.2% positive feedback•704K items sold

Joined Dec 2002
Absurd name. Absurd prices.
Visit storeContact

Detailed seller ratings

Average for the last 12 months
Accurate description
4.8
Reasonable shipping cost
5.0
Shipping speed
5.0
Communication
5.0

Popular categories from this store

See allcategories
Books Movies Music GamesToys/GamesMoviesClothing

Seller feedback (480,163)

All ratings
Positive
Neutral
Negative
See all feedback

Product ratings and reviews

Learn more
5.0
3 product ratings
  • 3 users rated this 5 out of 5 stars
  • 0 users rated this 4 out of 5 stars
  • 0 users rated this 3 out of 5 stars
  • 0 users rated this 2 out of 5 stars
  • 0 users rated this 1 out of 5 stars

Would recommend

Good value

Compelling content

Most relevant reviews

See all 2 reviews
  • by czkennett2011
    Aug 03, 2021

    Compelling and enjoyable

    Well written, fascinating story of the childhood and influences of someone who would become an author.

    Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: second.sale

  • by dmgriego62
    Feb 27, 2020

    Once We Were Sisters

    Well written.Storyline kept me interested.Will look for more books by this author.

    Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-OwnedSold by: second.sale

More to explore :