Amherst Bulletin: The price of protest: New novel looks at the consequences for two sisters caught up in the anti-war movement

Family relations can be fraught in the best of times, even when people care deeply for one another.

So what happens when you throw those family members into a situation as charged and divisive as the Vietnam War — and then force them to choose between family loyalty and personal beliefs when making a critical decision?

In Ellen Meeropol’s newest novel, “Her Sister’s Tattoo,” two sisters in their early 20s, Rosa and Esther Levin, take part in an anti-Vietnam War rally in Detroit in the volatile summer of 1968. Rosa, the older of the two, is dedicated to stopping the war any way she can. Her sister, Esther, opposes the war as well but also has an infant daughter who’s become the new focus of her life.