Chang and Eng - by Darin Strauss (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in paperback comes the brilliant reimagining of the remarkable lives of the original "Siamese Twins". Sweeping from the Far East and the court of the king of Siam to the shared intimacy of their lives in America, "Chang and Eng" rescues one of the 19th century's most fabled human oddities from the sideshow of history.

Book Synopsis

This stunning novel combines fiction with astonishing fact to tell the story of history's most famous conjoined twins.

Born in Siam in 1811--on a squalid houseboat on the Mekong River--Chang and Eng Bunker were international celebrities before the age of twenty. Touring the world's stages as a circus act, they settled in the American South just prior to the Civil War. They eventually married two sisters from North Carolina, fathering twenty-one children between them, and lived for more than six decades never more than seven inches apart, attached at the chest by a small band of skin and cartilage.

Woven from the fabric of fact, myth, and imagination, Strauss's narrative gives poignant, articulate voice to these legendary brothers, and humanizes the freakish legend that grew up around them. Sweeping from the Far East and the court of the King of Siam to the shared intimacy of their lives in America, Chang and Eng rescues one of the nineteenth century's most fabled human oddities from the sideshow of history, drawing from their extraordinary lives a novel of exceptional power and beauty.

Review Quotes

Praise for Darin Strauss and Chang and Eng

"Stunning."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Richly imagined...a haunting and thoroughly entertaining parable of loyalty and love."--Los Angeles Times

"Chang and Eng rocks with twisted passion, wickedly astute ruminations and a sly and powerful wit."--James Ellroy, author of The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential

About the Author

Darin Strauss is the award-winning author of the national and international bestseller Chang and Eng, as well as its screenplay for Disney Films and director Julie Taymor. His work has been translated into 14 languages, and he teaches at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.