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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2006, 352 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2007, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters, best friends, confidantes, and conjoined twins. When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's hips-- to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an incomparable life journey.
Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters, best friends, confidantes,
and conjoined twins. Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been
known simply as "the girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs,
love their parents, and follow their dreams. But the Darlens are
special. Now nearing their 30th birthday, they are history's oldest
craniopagus twins, joined at the head by a spot the size of a bread
plate.
When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it
inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with
Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm
curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's
hips-- to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the
small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an
incomparable life journey.
As Rose and Ruby's story builds to an unforgettable conclusion, Lansens
aims at the heart of human experience--the hardship of loss and
struggles for independence, and the fundamental joy of simply living a
life. This is a breath taking novel, one that no reader will soon
forget, a heartrending story of love between sisters.
Ruby & Me
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. I've
never driven a car. Or slept through the night. Never a private talk. Or solo
walk. I've never climbed a tree. Or faded into a crowd. 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.
My sister, Ruby, and I, by mishap or miracle, having intended to divide from
a single fertilized egg, remained joined instead, by a spot the size of a bread
plate on the sides of our twin heads. We're known to the world medical community
as the oldest surviving craniopagus twins (we are twenty-nine years old) and to
millions around the globe, those whose interest in people like us is more than
just ...
If you've enjoyed books such as The Time Traveler's Wife, you are likely to find that Lansen's blend of tragic-comedy will draw you in and leave you well satisfied...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Conjoined twins
occur in about
40,000 births
but only about
once in every
200,000 live
births. Craniopagus-twins
occur in only
about one in
every 10 million
live births.
Did you
know?
Medical advances
have led to the
discovery of
another type of
twin, known as
tetragametic
chimeras,
where the
embryos of two
...
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