Her : a memoir / Christa Parravani.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York : Henry Holt, 2013.Edition: 1st edDescription: 308 p. ; 22 cmISBN:- 0805096531 (hbk.)
- 9780805096538 (hbk.)
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Main Library | Biography | Parravan C. P259 | Available | 33111007100908 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Wall Street Journal , "Favorite Books of the Year 2013"
Cosmopolitan , "Best Books of the Year for Women"
Library Journal , "Best Books of 2013"
Salon , "Best Books of 2013"
"Haunting... more than a beautifully written memoir. [A] powerful and raw love letter."-- The Washington Post
A blazingly passionate memoir of identity and love: when a charismatic and troubled young woman dies tragically, her identical twin must struggle to survive
Christa Parravani and her identical twin, Cara, were linked by a bond that went beyond siblinghood, beyond sisterhood, beyond friendship. Raised up from poverty by a determined single mother, the gifted and beautiful twins were able to create a private haven of splendor and merriment between themselves and then earn their way to a prestigious college and to careers as artists (a photographer and a writer, respectively) and to young marriages. But, haunted by childhood experiences with fatherfigures and further damaged by being raped as a young adult, Cara veered off the path to robust work and life and in to depression, drugs and a shocking early death.
A few years after Cara was gone, Christa read that when an identical twin dies, regardless of the cause, 50 percent of the time the surviving twin dies within two years; and this shocking statistic rang true to her. "Flip a coin," she thought," those were my chances of survival." First, Christa fought to stop her sister's downward spiral; suddenly, she was struggling to keep herself alive.
Beautifully written, mesmerizingly rich and true, Christa Parravani's account of being left, one half of a whole, and of her desperate, ultimately triumphant struggle for survival is informative, heart-wrenching and unforgettably beautiful.