There is a special part of every woman that only a sister can understand. For sisters related by blood -- and best friends who are "sisters of the soul" -- no relationship is more powerful or more enriching. In Forever Sisters, today's most gifted writers -- award-winners and talented newcomers -- illuminate the bond sisters share. This diverse gathering of short stories, essays, and memoirs captures the experience of sisterhood, with its unique joys, sorrows, and spectrum of emotions.With the vivid gift for storytelling that distinguished her Pulitzer Prize-winner The Color Purple, Alice Walker tells a mother's tale of reunion between her daughters: one trapped by tragedy in the dirtpoor South, the other making it big in the city. In an engrossing short story, Marilyn French movingly depicts two young women growing apart in an alcoholic, dysfunctional family. Joy Fielding shapes a humorous but sharp-edged story of the consequences when half-sisters meet for the very first time on a TV talk show. Ann Beattie tells of a pair of friends, as close as sisters, locked in a smothering embrace. In a bittersweet tale, Fae Myenne Ng writes of growing up in a culture that considers a family with only girl children "failed." Recalling her grandmother and great-aunt, Olivia Goldsmith unfolds a dark memoir of sisterhood gone terrifyingly awry. Cristina Garcia relates a poignant account of sisters separated for thirty years, one trapped in Cuba, the other escaped to Miami, reunited at long last. And Rita Dove retells one of the classic fairy tales of sisters, Beauty and the Beast, from the disparate viewpoints of all the women involved.Along with other literary works, these touching, funny, and powerful selections speak to the need in every woman for a connection with someone who knows you better than you know yourself -- and who will stay Forever Sisters. Read Less