Middle Sisters: Six Generations of Women, Secret Journals, Betrayals, Resilience, and Redemption (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798822970052)

Can we recognize the patterns we inherited and find the strength to create something different? Spanning more than a century and two continents, Middle Sisters follows women whose lives are shaped by love, infidelity, and betrayals.

The memoir begins in Belgium in 1908 and later America, following the lives of Lydie, Zilda and her daughters through periods of war, difficult marriages, illness and personal loss.

Lydie coerces her vulnerable middle daughter, Zilda, into a loveless marriage to a self-serving man. As they navigate a tumultuous relationship, Zilda births three daughters forced to grow up amid conflict and occasional absurdity.

From Zilda, the focus shifts to her own middle daughter, fiercely independent Marguerite, who marries a brilliant, unfaithful man in medical school. She emigrates to the US, practices medicine, gets divorced and alone, raises her daughters while battling patriarchal academia, illness, eventually finding solace in the companionship of a younger, caring man.

The narrative is enriched by Zilda's secretly penned journals, discovered posthumously. She paints a vivid portrait of her life - from her impoverished early years, her resentment-filled marriage, her strained relationships with her daughters and, finally, a shocking act of betrayal that leaves her shattered.

Despite favoring Marguerite's sisters during their formative years, it is Marguerite that Zilda leans on during her later years. This memoir is a complex tale of generational meddling and trauma, favoritism, abandonment, and broken relationships. It is also the story of a young mother's determination to free her own family from the chains of past mistakes, and a testimony to the resilience and power of women amidst adversity.

Middle Sisters is an unflinching exploration of women's resilience, the search for independence and happiness. It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of self-determination.