ABOUT THIS BOOK

A man recently released from prison returns to the dating scene and struggles to find the right time to reveal his long-past murder conviction. A grieving mother considers her own role in her son’s death. A boy enables the destructive addiction of the person he’s in love with. A dog, witness to his owner’s violent acts, begins to sweat. Each story in Rebecca Bernard’s Our Sister Who Will Not Die brings the reader face to face with the frailties of human character—and demonstrates how the yearning for love and connection allows beauty and resilience to emerge from darkness. In questioning traditional formulations of good and evil, Bernard’s stories ask us to recognize our own culpabilities and acknowledge our shared humanity. None of us is the worst thing we’ve ever done, these stories compel us to believe. Hope is always worth letting in.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Rebecca Bernard is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Angelo State University. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, Southwest Review, Juked, Pleiades, and elsewhere and has been recognized in Best American Short Stories.

REVIEWS

"[Bernard] creates a fascinating variety of ways to tell stories that engage risky narrative terrain. … Our Sister Who Will Not Die will appeal best to readers who are drawn to characters with precarious footholds on social acceptance, or even on reality." —Emily Choate, Chapter 16

“Rebecca Bernard explores the darkest innerworkings of her characters … while maintaining their humanity. … From pedophilia to drug addiction, abuse to adultery, each story highlights the painful and disordered elements of humankind but never loses the tether of empathy. … Separately, the machinations and characters within [the stories] are powerful, insightful, and absorbing. But together, this compilation and the dynamics within the relationships are unforgettable.” —Jenny Maattala, Southern Review of Books

“The characters of Our Sister Who Will Not Die are exquisitely chiseled, the situations nauseatingly challenging, the language delightfully direct and emotionally wise—so the results are refreshing and painful at once. … Our immersion in these uncomfortable spaces repels us. But Bernard won’t let us turn away. She makes us look closer, and we find ourselves identifying with, and rooting for, her broken, twisted heroes.” —Jody Hobbs Hesler, Another Chicago Magazine

“Without asking us to ignore or forgive, Bernard encourages us to rethink first impressions and to search deeply for compassion. … The stories [in Bernard’s collection] remind us that facing our fears and connecting with others allows us to ‘come, at last, to honesty, to ugliness, together.’” —John Wegner, Necessary Fiction

“Rebecca Bernard plumbs her characters’ darkest moments to extract something compassionate and gleamingly alive. One after the next her stories astonished me with their humanity and raw courage.” —Lee Conell, author of The Party Upstairs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AWARDS

Winner of the 2021 The Ohio State University Press "The Journal" Non/Fiction Prize