A sister’s attempt to make sense of a sudden suicide

Non-fiction: History of a Suicide: My Sister’s Unfinished Life. By Jill Bialosky. Granta Books, €21.50. Reviewed by Niall Crumlish

Jill Bialosky had her final conversation with her half-sister Kim on April 13, 1990, the day of Jill’s birthday. Kim, who was 21, lived at home in Cleveland. Jill, ten years older, was building a career and starting a family in New York. They chatted, said they loved one another and hung up.

“Three days later,” writes Bialosky, in a tone that is palpably still stunned, “she was gone.”

Kim returned home from ...