Accidentally pregnant, married, and settled on the family farm before she reached her mid-twenties, Peachy Archer has all the spontaneity of a coffee table. Now 28, she has two loveable boys, a long-abandoned partial degree in social work, and a marriage that’s dull but predictable. There are fissures in her life, but for the most part, Peachy leaves the family drama to her half-sister, Beth.

That is, until the glamorous Beth brings her New York wildness home to the Southern Ontario farm. In a single moment – in which Peachy catches Beth having drunken sex with her husband – Peachy’s cultivated adoration for her half-sister unravels.

Lisa Gabriele’s second novel pops with wit and humour, and even the book’s darkest corners are lit with the author’s bright wordplay. The bitter ruminations of the slighted Peachy, as she reminisces about her marriage and half-sisterhood, are as bold and hilarious as they are tragically confessional.

Beneath the novel’s cheerful tone is the steady hum of more serious topics: the suicide of the Archer girls’ mother, the epilepsy that Peachy’s eight-year-old son, Sam, struggles with, and the constant spectres of alcoholism and domestic abuse. Through it all, Peachy’s father, a completely endearing draft dodger turned hairdresser who raised both girls, pursues a doomed mission to keep everyone in the family beautiful, sober, and congenial.

At the edge of Gabriele’s briskly paced story is an aching nostalgia for innocence lost, opportunities missed, and friendship broken. Even the family farm, gradually being sold off to pay for Sam’s medical treatments, is vanishing.

Much as The Almost Archer Sisters is a story of silly mistakes and squabbling siblings, it’s also about how all of us face the big, unfathomable future.