Sin - Softcover

Hart, Josephine

3.42

946 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1453200045 ISBN 13: 9781453200049

Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC, 2010

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A provocative novel of jealousy and betrayal between two rival sisters Ruth calls herself a malevolent creature, ruled since childhood by hatred and envy for her adopted sister, Elizabeth. She grew up in Elizabeth's shadow, always falling short of her goodness and generosity, constantly resenting her very presence in the family. As they grow old, Ruth sets out to destroy her without guilt or hesitation. Ruth will strike Elizabeth where she's most vulnerable-she will steal her husband and send her collapsing into ruin. Written in Hart's concise, striking prose, Sin is a powerful and compulsively readable exploration of hate-and the destruction and tragedy it begets. "The reader looks on with mingled shock and fascination . . . a tour de force." -The New York Times "Shocking . . . unrelenting in its intensity . . . you won't be able to put it down." -Cosmopolitan "A remarkable talent." -Washington Post Book World Josephine Hart's international bestselling novels include Damage, Sin, Oblivion, and The Truth About Love. Born and raised in Ireland, she has also produced several successful plays in London's West End. Prior to becoming a writer, Hart worked in publishing and established the Gallery Poets and West End Poetry Hour. She lives in London.

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Review:

Sin, like Josephine Hart's third novel The Stillest Day, is an explicitly cautionary tale. Ruth Ashbridge is, from childhood, obsessively jealous of her orphaned cousin Elizabeth. At first, her envy leads her into only minor misbehaviour--adopting her smile, stealing her jewellery and silk underwear. Yet these small thefts quickly escalate into major transgressions as Ruth sets about stealing Elizabeth's husband and her happiness.

The confessional nature of Hart's first-person narrative suits the outpouring of hatred and envy. Ruth's position is succinctly summed up: "Like Satan before the Fall, I came to hate the very nature of goodness, to fear its power." However, her emotion is occasionally overemphasised and the descriptions of her overwrought, resulting in Ruth sounding unintentionally comic. She says of her own marriage to Dominick: "We were balanced. His love. My coldness."

With Sin, Josephine Hart aims to create a modern biblical parable. In order to foreground the didactic content of her novel, Hart keeps characterisation to a minimum, shunning the complex psychology and narrative tension of her first novel Damage. In Hart's world, sin--succumbing to an impulse in complete disregard of its consequences--leads inescapably to tragedy. Through that tragedy, the heroine will learn too late the true value of goodness. --Vanessa Cook

Review:

"The reader looks on with mingled shock and fascination . . . a tour de force." --The New York Times

"Shocking . . . unrelenting in its intensity . . . you won't be able to put it down." --Cosmopolitan
"A remarkable talent." --Washington Post Book World

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