Fishel writes about the ways a women’s life is shaped and influenced by having a sister, from the moment she is born through old age and death. It explores the depth and breadth of sisters’ relationships through the life-cycle, through closeness, distance and ambivalence, through rivalry and love, in the family and beyond. Fishel studies sisters’ relationships from youth to age, using questionnaires and interviews. Issues examined in the book are: the messages of birth order and the dynamics of the family crucible;patterns of roles, of rivalry, and of polarities;and their magnetic influence on each other’s emerging sexuality, and each other’s identities as women. (BOOK)