THE BALLAD OF TWO SISTERS
At the center of The Ballad of Two Sisters are Stella and Helen, two sisters who die on the same day. One fragile and one strong, the sisters confront the troubles of the past and the uncertainty of the future as they seek connection, joy, and completion. Though at times circuitous, the paths the sisters travel ultimately lead them back to each other, until finally, they can never be parted.
Fiction (Novel)
ISBN: 978-1-956692-96-9
Publication Date: August 8, 2023
At the center of The Ballad of Two Sisters are Stella and Helen, two sisters who die on the same day. One fragile and one strong, the sisters confront the troubles of the past and the uncertainty of the future as they seek connection, joy, and completion. Though at times circuitous, the paths the sisters travel ultimately lead them back to each other, until finally, they can never be parted.
Fiction (Novel)
ISBN: 978-1-956692-96-9
Publication Date: August 8, 2023
At the center of The Ballad of Two Sisters are Stella and Helen, two sisters who die on the same day. One fragile and one strong, the sisters confront the troubles of the past and the uncertainty of the future as they seek connection, joy, and completion. Though at times circuitous, the paths the sisters travel ultimately lead them back to each other, until finally, they can never be parted.
Fiction (Novel)
ISBN: 978-1-956692-96-9
Publication Date: August 8, 2023
Praise for THE BALLAD OF TWO SISTERS
A rich and absorbing read, Darci Schummer’s story of sisters Stella and Helen – one fragile and one strong – is a double helix of individual and very different lives bound by love and blood, spiraling from their difficult childhood through jobs, marriage, children, and aging. What a lovely book of broken, revitalized, and beautiful hearts.
——Linda LeGarde Grover, author of In the Night of Memory
A dark and haunting family saga, The Ballad of Two Sisters spirals around identity with details that pull you hard into the smallness of Midwest America. Schummer’s writing is emotional and her storytelling gets deep into your head, making you forget you’re reading. She’s dreamy and eclectic and smooth and easy. Time spent with this book will certainly enrich your life.
—Raki Kopernik, author of The Things You Left and The Memory House
In a sense, Schummer is herself the Mortician. Like that character’s attention to detail, her writing brings the sisters to life, tracking them from childhood into old age, through the ups-and-downs that nearly break Helen and add a sort of icy resolve to Stella. In chapters that explore the sort of quotidian dramas, some minor (Helen’s near kidnapping of a toddler) and some major (the PTSD driven disappearance of Stella’s war vet son), that shape the lives of the sisters, Schummer brings them to vivid life through beautifully observed and beautifully written prose that enriches but never gets in the way of the sad, nurturing, deeply felt narratives that bring us into the sisters’ lives.
—Carter Meland
About DARCI SCHUMMER
Darci Schummer hails from the village of Fall Creek, Wisconsin. Primarily a fiction writer, she is the author of the story collection Six Months in the Midwest (Unsolicited Press) and co-author of the poetry/prose collaboration Hinge (broadcraft press). Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Ninth Letter, Folio, Jet Fuel Review, MAYDAY, Necessary Fiction, Sundog Lit, and Pithead Chapel, among other places. She has been nominated both for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and her work has also been selected as a Longform Fiction Pick of the Week. In 2023, she was the artist-in-residence at the La Pointe Center for the Arts in La Pointe, Wisconsin, on Madeline Island. She teaches writing at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College where she also serves as editor of The Thunderbird Review.
