IN MY SISTER'S COUNTRY

Readers will have a difficult time deciding who is the more self-destructive sister in this darkly comic debut novel of sibling rivalry and family dysfunction. Perhaps 17-year-old Molly—functioning more or less on her own after going to live with her older sister, Amanda, an executive at a major Chicago magazine—should be allotted extra points for daring to think it might be possible to cope. Their mother is in a hospice, dying of cancer, and their father—a renowned psychologist—left the family some years earlier and mysteriously disappeared. Beautiful, driven and high-strung Amanda is the domineering force in Molly's life, and the two continually lock horns. As Molly acts out her frustrations through random sexual encounters (including a risky obsession and charade with Amanda's boyfriend, Nathaniel), she replays flashbacks of the twisted life with her sister and parents, in particular the tyrannical mind games their father played with the girls and his ruthless control over their weak-willed mother. Past and present play out in dark, shadowy parallels and even Molly's few friends, rich kids Sharon and Hollister, are prone to games and subterfuge. There's a sinister, dreamlike quality in the way Haines handles this material, blending the realistic Chicago city setting with murky, almost otherworldly set pieces and the precocious Molly's keen yet off-balance insights. Not for the psychologically squeamish, this inventive twist on family malaise makes the unbelievable believable and lingers creepily after the last page. (Apr.)

Forecast:Fans—particularly the younger ones—of Josephine Hart's novels ( Damage, etc.) and urban writers like Maggie Estep are the ideal audience for this haunting debut, and presumably the Putnam publicity machine will alert them to this title. Expect respectable sales.