The five Lisbon sisters - beautiful, eccentric and, now, gone - had always been a point of obsession for the entire neighbourhood. Although the boys that once loved them from afar have grown up, they remain determined to understand a tragedy that has defied explanation. The question persists - why did all five of the Lisbon girls take their own lives? This lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life announced the arrival of one of the greatest American novelists of the last thirty years.