★ New York Times Bestseller ★
★ Vogue, Harper's Bazaar Book of the Year ★
★ READ WITH JENNA Book Club Selections ★

“We are just as filthy as the most ordinary sisters.”

Even sadness is beautifully crafted
The story of sisters who are the whole world and each other's starting point.

The novel 『Blue Sisters』 by Coco Mellors, a trendy novelist who has enjoyed strong support from readers and is leading the reading trend, is being introduced in Korea for the first time.
"The Blue Sisters" is the most talked-about novel in the English-speaking world in 2024, following the popularity of his first work, "Cleopatra and Frankenstein," which immediately became a New York Times bestseller upon its publication.
This book is comparable to the classic literary work, Little Women, and has been called “a family novel for the 21st century” (by novelist Kim Joo-hye). It depicts the growth story of three sisters in the midst of extreme sadness and loss.

It's been a year since Nikki, the third of four sisters in the Blue family, passed away at the age of twenty-seven.
The three remaining sisters, Avery, Bonnie, and the youngest, Lucky, receive an email from their mother.
He said he was going to sell the apartment in New York where his family lived together, so he was going to have to pack up.
No matter how cold-hearted our mother is, how could she possibly erase Niki's traces so quickly? The three sisters, living in London, Los Angeles, and Paris respectively, sense through their mother's emails that it's time to address long-overdue family matters.
Now, it's about facing the death of Niki, who is no longer with us, returning to our family, and letting go of the grief that still remains.

"The Blue Sisters" is a story about three sisters left behind after the death of the third of four sisters living in New York, Nikki, and became an immediate bestseller.
With the huge success of her debut work and the continued acclaim from readers, Coco Mellors has proven herself to be a rising star who is strongly loved by novel readers.
In addition to being selected as a Book of the Year by Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, it was also chosen by READ WITH JENNA, the hottest book club in the US, and has been introduced as a fascinating work that people want to read and discuss together.
In particular, for readers who were moved by the intense emotions displayed in Sally Rooney's "Normal People" or the catharsis of pain displayed in Hanya Yanagihara's "Little Life," "The Blue Sisters" will be the best choice.

Sisters are not friends.
Who can explain the desire to reduce the primal and complex relationship of sisterhood to the utterly ordinary and changeable relationship of friends?
Yet the word friend continues to be used consistently to mean the most intimate relationship.
My mom is my best friend.
My husband is my best friend.
I said no.
Sisters are creatures who grow their nails in the same womb and are pushed out through the same birth canal, so they cannot be like friends.
Sisters don't choose each other, and they don't have a secret period of getting to know each other.
It means that we became a part of each other from the very beginning.
Think of the umbilical cord.
It's tough, crooked, and unsightly, but isn't it something that absolutely must be there?
Compare it to a friendship bracelet woven with brightly colored thread.
That's the difference between sisters and friends.

--- p.13

After Nikki's funeral, it was Avery who spent money to stop time.
She had been paying the mortgage on her New York apartment for the past year and had vacated it, leaving Nikki's belongings behind.
But time was stronger than money.
Avery knew that better than anyone.
That's just a temporary measure.
But I wasn't ready for the ending yet.
Now that I realized that even that temporary measure would soon disappear, I felt a strange longing for the cramped apartment.
Like it or not, I never felt alone when I lived in that house.

--- p.91

One evening, Bonnie and Avery were in their room, blocking the door with their bodies, laughing and enjoying being alone together, leaving everyone else behind, and feeling a stronger bond.
Meanwhile, Niki was begging from outside to open the door.
Niki grew increasingly frustrated and agitated, and eventually started banging his body against the tightly closed door, causing it to rattle.
As they listened to the sound of the door thump, thump, thump, the joy they had felt while playing among themselves was completely drained from them, and in the end, the prank came to a reckless and hasty end when Bonnie and Avery hurriedly opened the door, causing the younger brother, who had thrown himself forward with all his might, to fall forward.
"Stop it, are you crazy? You'll get hurt if you do this." Bonnie knew that was normal behavior for normal children.
It is inevitable that siblings will side with each other and fight against each other.
But now that Niki is gone, I can't bear the memory.
Even now, I just wanted to go back to that time and open the door wide.
Wouldn't it have been better if that door had never been closed in the first place?
--- p.165

Avery took a deep breath.
When will we be able to tell stories like this without difficulty?
Every time I tell this story, I want to tear the world apart like a piece of sketchbook paper.
So I wanted to tear that terrible mistake apart and start over.
When will I stop feeling like this?
But there was also a very small sense of relief.
Because it was something Avery had never confessed to anyone.
Niki suffered for a long time before she died.
The only problem was that the pain was invisible.
Avery wanted to give her something to rely on.
Something that everyone around you can recognize.
But I only found out now.
That most pain is secret.

--- p.194

"Do you know why I became an addict? It wasn't because I took too many drugs or drank too much alcohol."
“Then what is the reason?”
She took a deep breath, feeling the burning pain in her lungs.
“Once I find something that gives me pleasure, I keep doing it until it eventually causes me pain.
It's always been like that."
At Avery's words, Charlie gave his characteristically awkward smile.
"is it so.
But who knows when to stop?”
--- p.224

“Your father… also died from drugs?”
"no.
He committed suicide.
But isn't that it?"
Lucky stared blankly down the alley.
I didn't want to argue with this guy, but Nikki's death was not a suicide.
Nikki wasn't trying to die, he was taking painkillers to survive. As the BFG lit a cigarette, Lucky pulled out one he'd picked up at the bar and joined in.
It already felt like a completely different day.
As Lucky leaned towards the flame of the lighter he held out, their eyes met, and something they both knew made him feel slightly better.

--- p.245

“I think people do drugs to try to love life again.
That's what I see every night at the club.
Sex, alcohol, cocaine, etc., that's not real, that's what I'm saying.
People who have lost the love of life turn to drugs to get back the feelings they had in the past.
Do you understand?”
Lucky looked up at him. The BFG nodded slowly, still lost in his own thoughts.
Could what I just said apply to Lucky too? Had she lost her love for life? The things other people did to make life meaningful—working, getting married, having children, building a home—seemed meaningless to Lucky.
Moreover, I couldn't remember when I had last loved life.
Is it possible to lose love if you've never felt it?
--- p.246

But Niki was different.
Niki couldn't stand the awkward silence on stage during the Q&A session after the speaker had exposed all his vulnerabilities, so she was always the first one to raise her hand and ask a question.
People often need to drink to find the courage to dance, give a wedding speech, or go on a date, but Nikki didn't need that.
She was always the one who jumped into the middle.
Nikki took the pills to keep her love for life.
I only wanted to stay in this world.
That older sister died, and now Lucky is the only one alive and destroying himself.
In that moment, Lucky realized.
The best way to remember Nikki is to live the way he would have wanted to live, to be fully awake and alive to the fullest.
But Lucky didn't know how that could be possible, and frankly, he was scared that he would never be able to live like that.
So I covered up that thought.

--- p.247

“Now, I know what you’re thinking.
"First a prostitute, then a crazy bitch? I can't let that person have another daughter! You're probably thinking, 'What?'"
Bonnie, who was next to Lucky, made a small, displeased noise.
It was the first sound she had made since her father began his speech.
“But at the end of the novel, Nicole is very different.
Unlike Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.
Zelda was locked up in a mental hospital and died in a fire, didn't she?
But Nicole is better.
And as you can see at the end of the novel, he is happy and free.”
He looked around the room to make sure everyone was listening.
“That’s what I wished for all my daughters.
It's about surviving no matter what happens in life.
Actually, something will happen to your daughters.
I know that for sure.
But I hoped to survive and find a way to be happy and free.”
--- p.376

“I miss Nikki.
I miss you and I miss you again.
And I'm waiting for this feeling to end.
All other emotions have disappeared.
No matter how intense, no matter how difficult, it's all over, but this longing won't end.
There is no end to longing.
I have to let the past be the past and live in the present, but I can't seem to accept that.
I can't accept the fact that I will miss Nikki forever.
The day of liberation will never come.
We will never meet again.
I wish there was a god too.
I want to believe in the afterlife or whatever.
But when I try to talk to Niki in my head, there's no answer.
I can't hear that kid.
I can't even feel it.
All I have is longing.
And in a corner of my heart, I hope this longing never ends.
“Because right now, the only thing that connects Niki and me is this longing.”

--- p.491