Happy International Siblings Day! We are bringing you the books with all the best depictions of siblings – get ready to add them to your TBR x
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The events in this book literally wouldn’t EXIST if it weren’t for the main character Celie’s love for her sister, Nettie, spurring her on, encouraging her to keep living and writing to a sister she’s not even sure is still alive. The Color Purple is told through letters and highlights the suffering but also celebrations of Black women in early 1900s America. If you haven’t read it, what are you doing? It won a Pulitzer Prize for a reason, people!
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
For a darkly inventive and unsettling portrait of dysfunctional sibling relationships, look no further than Julia Armfield’s Private Rites, which sees three sisters gather to settle their late father’s estate. This masterful reworking of King Lear is tinged with creeping horror and set in a dystopian Britain that is slowly drowning amidst the worsening climate crisis. It charts the family’s fractured relationships, desires and fears as they fight to stay afloat.
Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth
Set in 1960s rural Ireland, this novel is all about sibling rivalry, with the author herself stating it was born out of her feelings of deep love and irritation for her brothers. Siblings make you act crazy, and that is the case in the O’Leary family. Forced to relocate to the village of Ballycrea with tight-lips and a dark past, Anna, Tom, Jack and Peggy are desperate for a fresh start but what happens when one sibling is on the cusp of ruining things for the others?
My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
For a novel about brotherhood that’s funny and heartbreaking in equal measure, pick up My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal. Set in 1980s Birmingham, the narrative follows eight-year-old Leon as he and younger brother Jake are placed into emergency foster care and must navigate new relationships whilst seeking to reunite their family. Leon’s unique observations bring humour and the brothers’ unbreakable bond lends this emotional novel moments of joy.
Need a quirky retelling of a beloved classic? Try Eligible, which transports the romantically-challenged Bennet sisters of Pride and Prejudice to modern day Cincinnati. Family politics, pushy parents and money troubles push Liz, Jane and their sisters towards dating disasters and awkward encounters – including with dashing neurosurgeon Darcy and smooth-talking family doctor turned reality TV star Bingley. Sittenfeld’s update stays true to Austen’s original plot and mounts a scathing takedown of twenty first century gender politics.
Published August 2025 in the UK by us, Shred Sisters is a sweeping story about two sisters trying to maintain a strong bond while the eldest sister Olivia, beautiful and charismatic, throws the family into chaos with her sudden and inexplicably erratic behaviour. Amy, the reliable and studious younger sister, is left reeling from her sister’s comings and goings – but the pair cannot deny that no matter how far life throws them, they will always return to each other. Heartbreaking, raw and so real, this one will have you bullying your sister a little less.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
What would this list be without this classic? Told from the perspective of nosey teenage boys, the Lisbon sisters are mythical, idolised creatures completely cut off from their community by their strict Catholic parents. With such little permission to truly live, the girls are preoccupied with thoughts of death (see the title). Yet, the Lisbons live – or die – by the rule that if one sister goes, they must all follow suit.