My Sister by Emmanuelle Salasc

In My Sister, acclaimed French author Emmanuelle Salasc delivers a taut, haunting psychological thriller set against the eerie stillness of a melting glacier. Translated with poise and acclaimed precision by Penny Hueston, this chilling novel examines the unsettling dynamics of twinship, trauma, and memory within the heightened atmosphere of ecological catastrophe.

The narrative begins as Clémence returns, unannounced, to the isolated alpine village where she and her twin sister Lucie were born. After a thirty-year absence, Clémence’s arrival coincides with a terrifying warning: the glacier above their home is on the verge of collapse. As the rest of the villagers flee, Clémence refuses to leave. She claims she is hiding from someone or something. Lucie, bewildered and alarmed, stays behind. Thus begins a tense, claustrophobic entrapment beneath the shadow of nature’s impending fury.

The sisters’ relationship forms the emotional and psychological core of the novel. Salasc portrays their dynamic with disturbing complexity. Lucie is fearful, eager to escape, but paralysed by Clémence’s strange composure and elusive motivations. Clémence, at once inscrutable and commanding, seems to manipulate not only her sister but the reader’s sympathies too. The tension between them, rooted in a shared yet disputed past, plays out like a slow-motion reckoning, where truth and memory fracture under pressure.

The novel’s setting in 2056 is subtly dystopian. Salasc never lingers on overt worldbuilding, yet the destabilised climate and social unease permeate the atmosphere. The glacier, a magnificent yet terrifying presence, becomes both metaphor and menace. It reflects the emotional and psychological landscapes of the characters with frozen trauma, buried secrets, and the threat of sudden collapse.

Salasc’s prose is stark and lyrical, capturing the desolate beauty of the mountain and the volatile intimacy of the sisters' reunion. Hueston’s translation preserves the delicate rhythm and quiet menace of the original French, offering English readers access to the novel’s rich emotional depth and restrained urgency. Salasc writes with an acute sensitivity to place and emotion, linking the disintegration of natural and familial structures with remarkable clarity.

What elevates My Sister beyond a conventional thriller is its ambiguity. The line between victim and aggressor, between protector and manipulator, is deliberately obscured. Clémence’s motives remain shrouded, and Lucie’s recollections are tainted by fear and decades of absence. This narrative instability creates a pervasive sense of dread and emotional disorientation, which mirrors the characters’ own psychological unraveling.

More than just a tale of estranged siblings, My Sister is a story of survival that is emotional, environmental, and existential. It interrogates the stories we tell ourselves about our families, and the danger of misremembering or refusing to remember. Salasc quietly suggests that catastrophe, whether familial or ecological, often begins long before the sirens sound.

With its sparse elegance, psychological acuity, and environmental resonance, My Sister is a novel of remarkable subtlety and power. It confirms Emmanuelle Salasc as a master of quiet literary unease, and offers readers an unforgettable meditation on the bonds that tie us together even, and especially, when they threaten to pull us apart.

Reviewer: Chris Reed

Text Publishing