Identical Strangers

Electronic book text

A memoir of twins separated and reunited

'Imagine a slightly different version of you walks across the room, looks you in the eye and says hello in your voice. You discover that she has the same birthday, the same allergies, the same tics and the same way of laughing. Looking at this person, you are able to gaze into your own eyes and see yourself from the outside. This identical individual has the exact same DNA as you and is essentially your clone. We don't have to imagine.'

Elyse Shein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn't until her mid-thirties that she searched for her biological mother. When Elyse contacted her adoption agency, she was not prepared for the shocking, life-changing news she received: she had an identical twin sister.

Paula Bernstein, a married writer and mother living in New York, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother. When she answered a call from her adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paul's life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth.

As they reunite and take their tentative first steps from stangers to sisters, Paul and Elyse learn that they were separated at birth as part of a secret study conducted by a pair of influential psychiatrists. They write with emotional honesty about the immediate intimacy they share as twins and the wide chasm that divides them as two complete strangers. Interweaving eye-opening studies and statistics on twin science into their story, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature.