The True and Splendid Story of the Harristown Sisters

Lovric’s inventive fifth novel (after The Book of Human Skin) follows seven Irish sisters on a journey sparked by an improbable nationwide fascination with their hair. The fatherless Swiney girls live in famine-struck County Kildare in 1865. Desperate, they take to the stage under the name “The Swiney Godivas,” ending each performance by letting down their ankle-length tresses. Soon a doll maker senses the potential for profit in their “follicular attractions.” He persuades them to move to Dublin, where they become the latest sensation and adjust to affluence. Their namesake dolls and Swiney Godiva hair products rake in cash, but happiness proves more elusive. Darcy, the harsh and greedy eldest sister, keeps the others short of both pocket money and freedom. Heartbreak, deception, a muckraking journalist, and the public’s fickle taste all sabotage their success. Momentum falters midway though due to an overabundance of exposition, while a section set in Venice never quite convinces despite its precision of detail. Still, the book’s rollicking, earthy voice evokes 19th-century Ireland with gusto, and Lovric brings the sisters and their tangled relationships to life as they come full circle to confront the poverty and losses from their past. (Aug.)