Dual Citizens: A novel

Written by Alix Ohlin

Narrated by Thérèse Plummer

A Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist

Raised in Montreal by their disinterested single mother, half-sisters Lark and Robin form a fierce team in spite of their differences. When Lark flees to America to attend college, her sister soon joins her. But even as Lark discovers a calling working in documentary film, she struggles with self-doubt, and Robin chafes against the demands of studying piano at Juilliard. Their bond strains under increasing pressure until it breaks.

Years later, Lark’s life is in tatters and Robin’s is wilder than ever. As Lark tries to take charge of her destiny, she discovers that despite the difficulties of their relationship, there is only one person she can truly rely on: her sister.

A gripping, unforgettable novel about art, ambition, sisterhood, motherhood, and self-knowledge, Dual Citizens captures the unique language of sisters and makes visible the imperceptible strings that bind us to the ones we love for good.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984891761

Alix Ohlin

ALIX OHLIN is the author of six books, including the novels Inside and Dual Citizens, which were both finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and many other publications. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives in Vancouver, where she chairs the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia.

Reviews for Dual Citizens

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of the relationship between two sisters, Lark (the narrator and elder) and Robin. Their fathers are not in their lives and their mother is very neglectful. The sisters form a strong bond despite very different personalities. They go through life, sometimes close together, sometimes almost estranged, but always able to maintain the tie that binds them.

I liked this exploration of sibling, mother-daughter, mentor-student relationships very much. Well written, with strong characters and voices that rang true. I liked the way it made me think about "editing" our lives...our memories...our realities, consciously or otherwise, by ourselves or those who know us. Very well done.

[icolford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dual Citizens follows the anything-but-straightforward life adventures of sisters Lark and Robin Brossard, from childhood to maturity. Older sister Lark narrates. The two are born and raised (after a fashion) in Montreal by their mother, Marianne, a beautiful but moody and perpetually aggrieved young woman whose greatest gift to her daughters seems to be an emotionally withholding, hands-off style of parenting that often veers distressingly close to neglect. With their mother providing room and board but little else (and even these are delivered grudgingly), the girls rely on each other for every other kind of support. Early in the book Lark establishes that she is the practical sister—a lover of order and routine—while Robin possesses an artistic temperament and a soul that is wild, free-spirited and creative but also darkly self-obsessed and impulsive. By a fluke the girls discover Robin’s affinity for the piano, and behind their mother’s back Lark arranges music lessons with a generous neighbour. This is typical of how Robin’s and Lark’s lives move forward: major developments resulting from accidental encounters, spontaneous decisions resulting in sudden and drastic shifts in trajectory. Lark leaves home for a small college in the US, Robin pursues a career on the concert stage. Fascinated by the methodical process of constructing stories out of images, Lark takes up film studies and becomes the protégé of a respected filmmaker named Lawrence Wheelock, later becoming his assistant, and finally his lover. Robin abandons music and falls off the grid, eventually resurfacing in rural Quebec where she’s operating a wolf sanctuary. The story of Lark and Robin covers decades and moves through moments of crisis familiar to all of us: failure, estrangement, illness, death. When the sisters come together again after years apart, both deeply altered by what they’ve witnessed and experienced, they rediscover their love and rekindle the unquestioning trust that from childhood has always bound them together. At its best, Alix Ohlin’s moving and intimate narrative convincingly renders life as we know it: a mostly unplanned construct more deeply influenced by chance than we’d care to admit, and made up of events, conversations, desires and choices that compel us to action and mould us into the person we become. If the book sometimes seems structurally random and even chaotic, that’s probably because it is: because life is chaotic, the world we live in unpredictable. The beauty of Dual Citizens is that it captures life’s chaos without pretence, and without apology. A finalist for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize.