Sleep, pale sister is Joanne Harris' second novel and written before her succes. It's nothing like Harris later books. Totally differnt, even thou some of Harris "standard things" such as chocolate and gypsies and dark pasts appear. "A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel" it stands on the cover. That's guite right. I would indeed call the novel mad. All the persons in it are mad, crazy. Haunted by their pasts. The novel is also very confusing since there are four differnt Is who tell the story. It take a while to figure out who is the I in the chapter you are currently reading. The book takes place in the end of the 19th century (1800-talet). The main characters (and the Is) are Henry Chester 40 something years old painter, Effie, his 18-year-old wife and his former model, Mose, Effies lover and Fanny, hostes of a bordel and the woman who's daughter Henry has murdered. They're all mad and everything gets even more mad when Effie starts living a double life as as herself and Martha, the murdered dautghter. As Martha she becomes Henry's lover... Itjust can't end well when Effie as Martha makes Henry murder herself (Effie).

Read if you want to see a different Joanne Harris!

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