Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

I do not feel like I went a bit over-the-top with this review of Curtis Sittenfeld’s Sisterland in the Observer. Although when I met her to interview her for Notting Hill book shop Lutyens and Rubinstein, she said the review had been so positive it had made her cry. (She does not normally read her reviews, but her dad has a Google alert on her name and he sent her this one because he thought she would like it.)

There’s no way you could give Sisterland a bad review, though: it’s a brilliant, bold, laugh-out-loud, warm, daring novel about the fallout in one woman’s life when her twin sister predicts an earthquake. I went even further over-the-top at the interview (which was expanded from the book shop to the church opposite because of Sittenfeld’s clamouring fans) and said it would win next year’s Bailey’s Women’s Prize. Drink had not been taken (at that point) and I’m not taking it back.