Chang and Eng

By: Darin Strauss

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Synopsis: You are about to meet two extraordinary brothers. Born attached at the chest, Chang and Eng Bunker were the Siamese twins for whom the term was coined, one of the nineteenth century's most fabled human oddities. Now Darin Strauss has rescued the twins from the sideshow of history, drawing from their extraordinary conjoined lives a first novel of exceptional beauty. Taken from Thailand as adolescents, Chang and Eng toured the world's stages, finding celebrity while performing in a cage. Fighting for respect their whole lives, they were greeted by royalty, toasted by London, and yet mocked by carnival crowds. The twins eventually married two sisters and embarked on one of history's most fascinating and unlikely romantic journeys as they fathered twenty-one children. But the most compelling and mysterious relationship they endured was their own. Narrated by Eng, Chang and Eng follows the twins from poverty to wealth, from solitude to boundless love, from the court of the King of Siam to the crowded bedroom of their North Carolina home. This is an unforgettable and sublimely moving story that reveals above all the longings and humanity of these remarkable twins. Darin Strauss has written a daring and bold debut: the perfect mixture of historical research and imagination to unveil the two very separate lives--and the shared life-- of Chang and Eng.