In Sister Zero, a woman who never wanted children suddenly becomes a mother to her nine-year-old nephew after her sister commits suicide at age 34. Fifteen years later, the boy will also kill himself and in almost exactly the same manner. Sister Zero is narrated through short prose sections and snippets of "advice" from Mister Ed (of the old television show), while Nance Van Winckel exhumes the sisters' shared childhood for missed clues, interrogates memory's accuracy, and interacts with a mother who's disappearing into late-stage Alzheimer's. As the shock of these deaths ripples out, the book progresses in swift strokes between the tough and tender, often staring stony-eyed at a terrifying moment, then jumping forward or backward