The Weight of One Pomegranate

In this introspective novel by Rebele-Henry (Orpheus Girl), 17-year-old Isadora struggles to shape her own identity following her beloved 22-year old sister Eleni’s death. Growing up in a ramshackle house near Washington, D.C., and raised by absent-minded academic parents, the sisters felt like their “own planet,” bound together as passionate observers of the natural world. When Eleni, a talented artist attending City College of New York, dies unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism, Isadora is unmoored—even more so when she discovers that Eleni and Eleni’s best friend, Ćazi, were lovers. She is especially unsettled by this discovery because Isadora herself is exploring a sexual relationship with her own best friend, Ani. As Isadora’s parents grow more disheveled and disoriented, she travels between D.C., and her uncle’s home in N.Y.C., on a quest to find Ćazi and learn more about Eleni’s secret life, and grapples with forming independent relationships for the first time. If the sisters’ parallel experiences occasionally strain credulity, Isadora’s distinctive voice, sprinkled with scientific facts, resonates throughout, laying bare the depths of uncertainty that can come with loss. Major characters default to white. Ages 14–up. (July)