The Foursome

Orphan Train author Kline offers a daring and deeply empathetic tale of the sisters who married conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874). Immigrants from Siam, Chang and Eng respectively marry Addie and Sallie Yates, distant relatives of the author, in 1843 Wilkes County, N.C. Sallie, who narrates the novel, is more reserved and tentative than her outgoing younger sister and has a hard time with their new domestic arrangement (the four share a bed), which she describes in clear but not prurient detail (“Even the most extraordinary life feels ordinary when you’re living it”). The novel follows them through the decades on their plantation in North Carolina, as the two women give birth to a total of 21 children. Kline uses their unusual circumstances to cast a light on the pressures of marriage and sisterhood as Sallie begins to assert her own identity and starts to question the institution of slavery, which the other three take for granted. Avoiding sensationalism and hewing closely to the historical record, Kline subtly and often poetically documents the small, daily choices that shape these lives. It’s remarkable. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (May)