Stella Miles Franklin. Literary hero, feminist trendsetter, trailblazer for Australian women to come – but what of her sister? Linda Franklin has remained largely unacknowledged in the whirlwind of Miles Franklin’s life, often relegated to the role of unassuming wife and mother in contrast to Stella as author and activist. But is Linda’s life all so undesirable – or even incomprehensible? This is the question Amy Brown seeks to explore.

Brown does this through three women’s stories. There is Ida, a writer and mother who has paused her writing while raising her daughter, who is rediscovering her desire for equal input from her husband in parenthood and marriage. Then Linda Franklin herself, writing a determined final word to her sister before she then dies at 25. And Stella, a singer–songwriter on a forced break from touring, reminiscing about what she has sacrificed for her fame. Brown, in a fascinating, disjointed way, examines the motivations pulling these women to and fro, as well as their regrets and new desires.

An element I personally enjoyed was that each sector, each glimpse of a woman’s life, may contain hardship, stagnation, or loneliness, but none end that way. These glimpses may not be enthusiastic, but they are gently hopeful. It is as if Brown is letting us know life won’t be perfect, but it will be okay.

The writing style is somewhat splintered, which occasionally means you lose Brown’s subject, with no chapters but instead subheadings. The stream-of-consciousness narration can be a little off kilter (perhaps the point) but often swings back to insightful. You are usually grounded back in the story within a page.

My Brilliant Sister is a love letter not just to Linda and Stella Franklin, but to women everywhere who find themselves caught by expectation, desire, or just the complicated position that is womanhood in the modern age.