Blood Sisters is a gripping story created with<BR>themes of real substance and wide appeal. While<BR>this sizzling novel is considered a classic of 1970s<BR>feminist literary fiction, the story is all too timely<BR>today as we face violent debate about national and<BR>ethnic autonomy in Ireland and elsewhere.<BR>Journalists witness ground wars and terrorist<BR>responses in detailed news reports, but Valerie Miner<BR>has divined a passionate full-blooded story about the individuals and families behind those headlines.<BR>At the heart of Blood Sisters are two cousins, <BR>one Irish, one American, who grew up steeped in<BR>their mothers' ideals of the 1916 Uprising. The two<BR>young women try to understand each other's views, <BR>to cross the blurry lines between private and political<BR>life, but are divided by their separate histories<BR>and often despair at the possibility of comprehension, <BR>let alone reconciliation.<BR>Blood Sisters intricately combines important<BR>issues within the tense format of a thriller. Miner<BR>subtly explores the relationships among women of<BR>different generations, unexpected and unacceptable<BR>romance, the daily dramas of immigrant life, <BR>and the struggle of Irish people to discover and<BR>create their own identity and autonomy.<BR>Blood Sisters with its suspenseful story, its crucial<BR>questions, its vibrant humor and its evocative<BR>descriptions is a tour de force by one of the most<BR>important writers of her generation.