Research Catalog

Identical strangers : a memoir of twins separated and reunited

Title: Identical strangers : a memoir of twins separated and reunited / Elyse Schein, Paula Bernstein.
Author: Schein, Elyse, 1968-
Publication: New York : Random House, [2007], ©2007.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	CT275.B56545 A3 2007	Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Bernstein, Paula, 1968-

Description

viii, 270 pages : color illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"Elyse Schein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn't until her mid-thirties while living in Paris 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. Elyse was then hit with another bombshell: She and her sister had been separated as infants and, for a time, been part of a secret study on separated twins." "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, Paula'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 strangers to sisters, Paula and Elyse are also left with haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation. They learn that the study was conducted by a pair of influential psychiatrists associated with a prestigious adoption agency. As they investigate their birth mother's past, Paula and Elyse move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives." "In alternating voices, Paula and Elyse 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 narrative, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature." "Identical Strangers is the amazing story of two women coming to terms with the strange and unbelievable hand fate has dealt them, an account that broadens the definition of family and provides insight into our own DNA and the singularly exceptional imprint it leaves on our lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Biography.

ISBN

9781400064960 (alk. paper)
1400064961 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2007014488

OCLC

ocn123390922
123390922
SCSB-5370220

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries