"People think having a twin means never being lonely," Christa Parravani writes in Her, a moving memoir about losing her identical twin sister, Cara. "Nothing is lonelier than being separated." Identical twins share more than genetic DNA, Parravani explains. They share the same thoughts, aspirations and ways of dealing with life. They each want to become the other half of themselves. When one twin dies, she says, "50 percent of twins follow their identical twins into death within two years."
Parravani eloquently details life with Cara as they move from an impoverished childhood, raised by their mother, into young adulthood, college and early marriages. Then Cara is brutally raped, and her traumatized life spirals downward into drugs and a fatal overdose. In turn, Parravani embarks on her own path of self-destruction as she struggles with the loss of her other half. Gripping in its intensity, Her displays Parravani's raw emotions as she abandons her photography career and tries to replace the irreplaceable with drugs, alcohol and extramarital affairs. She finally comes to realize she's been given the greatest gift, the will to live and a reason to hope: "I had something before me that Cara would never have: years." Her is a rich memorial to sisterhood, love and the will to survive. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer