Excerpt from The Sisters K by Maureen Sun, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He was forgetful; he was wildly self-absorbed. He was also sentimental, and though he would often neglect Sarah, confusing his satisfaction with her as his offspring with fulfillment of her needs, the memory of her first weeks at home—when he felt passionate love for his wife and love and pride in his second daughter—became a sentimental touchstone for the rest of his life. 

Two years would pass before Esther was born. It was Jeonghee who decided on her name, taken from one of the nurses in her ward, a somewhat surly and intimidating woman who Jeonghee sensed was the same age as herself, but whose bony face, with red-rimmed nose and faded blue eyes, appeared ten years older. Jeonghee timorously assented with cowed nods and pounding heart to all the orders Esther barked at her about caring for the baby and caring for herself. When Esther left, and she was alone behind her partition, she realized the nurse had jolted her awake after months of thoroughgoing enervation. There was no trace of compassion in the nurse's attitude. Her hard bristling energy aroused envy in Jeonghee, who dreamt of being emptied out, unburdened of herself, the ever-present consciousness that weighted her like water in a drowning body.

Eugene was less excited about Esther's birth, if only because it seemed a repetition of Sarah's. His feelings, in this vein, were already spent. 

Excerpted from The Sisters K by Maureen Sun. Copyright © 2024 by Maureen Sun. Excerpted by permission of The Unnamed Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.