What does it mean to be a sister or a brother, and are such relationships born or made? What do children and young people see as the defining features of their sibling relationships, and how does this relate to social context? Sibling Identity and Relationships explores the special place that siblings occupy in the lives of children and young people, providing new insights into sibling identity and relationships. Drawing on social constructionist and psychodynamic perspectives, it discusses who constitutes a sibling, emotional connections and separations, conflict and aggression and how siblings construct and conduct their relationship out of the home, at school and in local communities. Shedding light on broader debates about social and psychic divisions in wider society, this book explores the ways that siblings are important for children and young people's social and emotional sense of self in relation to others. alternative theoretical perspectives, Sibling Identity and Relationships will be a valuable resource to academics and students of childhood studies and social work as well as health and social care professionals.

Sibling Identity and Relationships explores the special place that siblings occupy in the lives of children and young people, providing new insights into sibling identity and relationships. Drawing on social constructionist and psychodynamic perspectives, it discusses who constitutes a sibling, emotional connections and separations, conflict and aggression and how siblings construct and conduct their relationship out of the home, at school and in local communities.

Shedding light on broader debates about social and psychic divisions in wider society, this book explores the ways that siblings are important for children and young people 's social and emotional sense of self in relation to others. Reviewing current literature on sibling relationships as well as proposing alternative theoretical perspectives, Sibling Identity and Relationships will be a valuable resource to academics and students of childhood studies and social work as well as health and social care professionals.

‘There is no better lycée than Our Lady of the Nile. Nor is there any higher. Twenty-five hundred metres, the white teachers proudly proclaim.’

Parents send their daughters to Our Lady of the Nile to be moulded into respectable citizens, and to escape the dangers of the outside world. In the elite school run by white nuns, the young ladies learn, eat, sleep and gossip together.

Fifteen years prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the girls try on their parents’ preconceptions and attitudes, transforming the lycée into a microcosm of the country’s mounting racial tensions and violence. In the midst of the interminable rainy season, everything unfolds behind the closed doors of the school: friendship, curiosity, fear, deceit, and persecution.

With masterful prose that is at once playful and penetrating, Mukasonga captures a society hurtling toward horror.