The last part of Agneta Pleijel’s historical family trilogy is a novel about a brother and sister who are very close, but who live under completely different conditions. Their father is a well known singer at the Opera in Stockholm, their mother is t ...
The last part of Agneta Pleijel’s historical family trilogy is a novel about a brother and sister who are very close, but who live under completely different conditions. Their father is a well known singer at the Opera in Stockholm, their mother is the daughter of a celebrated actor. The parents have high musical expectations on their first born son, Albert. But it turns out that he is deaf from birth. His sister, Helena, is born not long thereafter and she has everything the boy lacks: hearing, singing-voice and musicality. She becomes a superb singer but has to struggle with her father’s opinion that women shall not perform on stage. The book takes place during the 19th century as the demand on individual freedom and female emancipation were growing stronger.
Sister and Brother is the third part of a family story that began with The Queen’s Surgeon (2006) and The King’s Actor (2007), for which Agneta Pleijel has found inspiration in documents, letters and the stories of her own family.