A sense of loss for an inseparable friend, and placating her annoying little sister

Fiction: After Isabella, Rosie Fiore, Allen & Unwin, pbk, 384 pages, €16.25

Absorbing: Rosie Fiore

Rowena Walsh

Why are women so distrustful of female friendship? That's the question posed by Rosie Fiore in her latest novel, After Isabella.

Esther had been best friends with Isabella since her first day at a new school when she was nine years old. Vibrant, charismatic and full of life, Isabella quickly became the sister that only child Esther never had. Despite taking different paths in life - Isabella became a renowned architect, happily child-free, while academic Esther married her university boyfriend and had a baby girl - they remained inseparable until Isabella died of cancer when she was just 39.