Emily Austin

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

But Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta’s friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

“A must read” (Haley Jakobson, New York Times Editor’s Choice author), We Could Be Rats is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.

We Could Be Rats

karina

I’m not sure there’s a way to be alive without upsetting people. We’re all in this web together, aren’t we? Everything we do tangles everybody else together. 

Anna Oeltjenbruns

There's no one I can ask. I'm nervous if I google it cops will show up at my apartment. I bet the cops are way too busy to monitor my internet usage. They have homeless people to kick out of vestibules. That one Black man who occasionally drives through town isn't going to pull himself over. It's probably more likely that Drysdale police spend their time gossiping with each other in parking lots or texting their mistresses

I was getting older and losing my capacity to imagine. My dress rehearsal was ending, and I was just going to have to be who I was.

We Could Be Rats quotes

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