Christina Baker Kline plumbs the remarkable lives of sisters who married famous conjoined twins.

On this episode of Fully Booked, Christina Baker Kline joins us to discuss The Foursome (Mariner Books, May 12), a stunning work of historical fiction centering Sarah and Adelaide Yates, the women who married SiameseAmerican brothers Chang and Eng Bunker, who were conjoined twins. In a starred review, Kirkus calls The Foursome “a profound and moving treatment of what could have been a tabloid topic.”

Kline is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train, The Exiles, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Society Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and several bookseller awards, among other prizes. Born in England, she was raised in the American South and Maine, and she now lives in New York City and in Southwest Harbor, Maine. She is a distant relative of the Yates and Bunkers.

Here’s a bit more from our review of The Foursome: “The original, eponymous Siamese twins—they were from Siam (now Thailand) before their mother sold them to the circus—have inspired many works of fiction and nonfiction, but Kline’s eighth novel may be the first written by one of their distant relatives. In her hands, it becomes a riveting and insightful story that is as much about sisterhood and the Civil War as about the prurient details of the marital arrangements. Clearly aware that one of the biggest imaginative challenges is depicting the way these four people maintained their dignity under the challenging circumstances.…Kline’s choice to focus on the experience of one of the sisters, Sallie, succeeds beautifully.…Once war breaks out, Kline hits her stride, compellingly and convincingly depicting the Southern experience as bravado shaded slowly, then utterly, into devastating loss.”

Kline and I explore the age-old question, Who has the right to tell a story? She shares her writing process, why she chose to put the manuscript away for a while, and how she landed on telling the story from the perspective of Sarah (known as Sallie). We consider the magnitude of the Bunkers’ fame, how the Civil War impacted the family, and much more.

At the end of our main author interview, Kline recommends to listeners a new novel she loves. Follow @kirkus_reviews on Instagram, DM us the title of that novel, along with your email and location, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to receive a $100 Visa gift card, courtesy of Kirkus. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the U.S. who have reached 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

The Man on the Bench by Hy Conrad

An Adventure Log by Jim Doti

Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.