Very little is known about the life of poet Emily Dickinson. As a woman, she is most known as a recluse; as a poet, she is known for producing some of the most daring and original verse of the nineteenth century. This verse is often said to be her only contact with the outside world, but not much is understood about the inner world which gave rise to it. The Sister probes into this world, revealing her tense relationship with her parents, her hidden passions and aspirations, and her secret views on religion and love, all seen through the eyes of one of those closest to her, her younger sister Lavinia.

Based on authentic journals, documents and letters from the Dickinson family, The Sister is a tribute to the struggle of a woman to vindicate the memory and perpetuate the legacy of her beloved sister. An intimate portrait of an extraordinary woman, it brings the "mad woman" out of the attic and reveals her as the living, breathing human being she was, filling in a vital missing piece of the jigsaw, the enigma that is Emily Dickinson.

Translated by William Rowlandson

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Paola Kaufmann (1969-2006) was born in Rio Negro, Argentina. In recent years, she combined fiction-writing with a successful career as a biologist and scientific researcher. In 2000 she won the Fondo Nacional de las Artes Prize with her short-story collection, The Devil’s Golf Course, and in 2003 she received the Casa de las Américas Prize for The Sister. Her latest novel, The Lake, won the Planeta Prize for fiction. Paola Kauffman died suddenly, after a short illness, in September 2006. Add to Cart: First Published: 2006