Haunting and tender, with brilliant flashes of humour, The Virgin Suicides is the story of the brief lives of the five entrancing Lisbon sisters.

Their enigmatic, shrouded personalities are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who, twenty years on, recall their adolescense: the sisters' gauche but breathtaking appearance on the night of the homecoming dance; the brassiere belonging to the promiscuous Lux, draped over a crucifix on the wall; the records the boys played down the phone, trying desperately to penetrate the sisters' isolation; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched a family disintegrate, and fragile lives disappear.

In The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides has created a masterly and evocative lament for the bittersweet taste of adolescent love that lingers for a lifetime.