Are You Two Sisters?

The Journey of a Lesbian Couple

By: Susan Krieger

Narrated by: Ann Richardson

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Authored by one of the most respected figures in the field of personal ethnographic narrative, this book serves as both a memoir and a sociological study, telling the story of one lesbian couple's lifelong journey together. 

Are You Two Sisters? is Susan Krieger's candid, revealing, and engrossing memoir about the intimacies of a lesbian couple. Krieger explores how she and her partner confront both the inner challenges of their relationship and the invisibility of lesbian identity in the larger world. 

Using a lively novelistic and autoethnographic approach that toggles back and forth in time, Krieger reflects on the evolution of her 40-year relationship. She describes building a life together, from sharing pets and travels to getting married. Are You Two Sisters? addresses not only questions of gender and sexuality, but also of disability, as Krieger explores how the couple adapts to her increasing blindness. 

Krieger's title comes from a question asked by a stranger outside a remote desert bar as she and her partner traveled in the Southwest. Her apprehension about answering that question suggests how, even after the legalization of gay marriage, lesbianism often remains hidden, an observation that makes Krieger's poignant narrative all the more moving.

©2022 Susan Krieger (P)2022 Susan Krieger

Critic reviews

“Every lesbian looking for a partner would love to know the secret of successful relationships. In her early book The Mirror Dance, Susan Krieger described themes of belonging and ambivalence in a lesbian community; now she turns that mirror inward for a candid reflection on her own relationship of forty years, from an uncertain beginning to an important place of refuge. With beautiful imagery and an engaging writing style, Krieger describes the highs and lows of two women with very different personalities learning to live together.” —Esther Rothblum, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Lesbian Studies 

“I could not stop reading this riveting account of traveling through the world in a lesbian relationship. What an honest, engaging, and stunningly written story about the beauty and tensions of being together and separate. The author invites us into her heart, emotions, and head as she seeks to reflexively understand the nuances of lesbian intimacy. This is a book for all those seeking to understand relationships more deeply and those who appreciate getting lost in an extraordinary autoethnography.” —Carolyn Ellis, Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Communication and Sociology at the University of South Florida, and author of Final Negotiations: A Story of Love, Loss, and Chronic Illness 

First book ever returned.

I had high hopes for this story of enduring love. Instead gave up listening after the of narrative describing where the dead cat used to make pee balls in the cat litter- the center- where as the new cats peed on the left and right. And I’m a cat lover. I’m sure there is a story about their relationship worth telling. This is not it.