The Girls by Lori Lansens (#62)

The Girls by Lori Lansens

“I have never looked into my sister’s eyes. I have never bathed alone. I have never stood in the grass at night and raised my arms to a beguiling moon. I’ve never used an airplane bathroom. Or worn a hat. Or been kissed like that…So many things I’ve never done, but oh, how I’ve been loved. And, if such things were to be, I’d live a thousand lives as me, to be loved so exponentially.”

Thus begins the tale of Rose and Ruby Darlen, the oldest living pair of craniopagus conjoined twins at age 29, abandoned by their mother at birth and adopted by a nurse that was working at the hospital the night they were born.

This work of fiction is written in the form of an autobiography, with each of “the girls” writing her own chapters and documenting her life through her own perspective.

It is written beautifully. I love books that hook me on the first page and don’t let go. This was one such book.

Extraordinary.