The Girls

The Girls by Lori Lansens is a contemporary work of adult fiction starring two women, Ruby and Rose, who are the oldest surviving pair of conjoined twins in the world. The book is narrated by both, who are fused at the skull, as they navigate their lives in small town Ontario, Canada. When Rose is diagnosed with a brain aneurysm just before the twins' 30th birthday, both Rose and Ruby set out to tell the story of their conjoined lives, in their own words, and their own, unique voices.

The narrators, Ruby and Rose, live in small-town Leaford, Ontario, a remote corner of the peaceful Ontario countryside, near the province's southern border. Ruby and Rose are twenty-nine years old when the novel begins, making them the oldest surviving pair of conjoined twins in the world. They live with their adopted mother and father, Lovey Darlen and Uncle Stash. The girls were born to a teenaged mother during a horrific tornado, and when their mother paled at the appearance of her daughters, nurse Lovey stepped in to adopt and care for the girls.

Despite their tumultuous birth and the struggles and limitations of being physically fused, Rose and Ruby live a full and mostly happy life together. They love their adopted father, a gentle Slovakian immigrant whom they call Uncle Stash. The parts of the book not focused on Rose and Ruby tell the story of the courtship of Lovey and Uncle Stash, a sweet romance that inspires the girls to seek out love.



Rose is the more academically and athletically inclined of the twins – she enjoys writing, and it is her idea to begin writing an autobiography when she is diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. The twins were in many ways expecting this eventual diagnosis; their fused veins and vessels caused complications not found in other people, and doctors suspected that an aneurysm would cause the eventual end of their lives. Ruby, the more beautiful of the two sisters, is also more sickly, with a club foot and a passion for television and history. When Rose receives her diagnosis, Ruby knows that she will die with her sister.

The girls' life, though shorter than most, is filled with its own share of love and grief and confusion. There are a few significant events in their lives, which take up much of the book. Early on, the girls are troubled by the grief of their next-door neighbors, whose young son died in the tornado that arrived on the day the girls were born. The girls' own lives are put at risk when a classmate of theirs tries to play a prank on them on their eighth birthday – as a result, the girls almost drown.

The girls also experience love – they share a crush on a boy named Frankie Foyle, who eventually becomes their shared romantic partner. Foyle gives Ruby her first kiss, and simultaneously takes Rose's virginity. As a result, one of the twin's becomes pregnant, and the two suffer after the baby is lost due to health complications caused, in part, by their shared circulatory system.



The lives of Uncle Stash and Lovey are also explored, including Uncle Stash's journey back to Slovakia to scatter the ashes of his deceased mother. The twins and their family experience death and birth and much more, writing each incident down (Rose lyrically, Ruby begrudgingly) in their own separate accounts of their thirty years of life.

Lori Lansens is the author of five novels, three of which are set in her hometown of Chatham, Ontario, a small town which is known as the end of the Underground Railroad. She lived for most of her adult life in Toronto, before moving with her family to Los Angeles in 2006. Her books include Rush Home Road, The Girls, The Wife's Tale, and The Mountain's Story. Her latest novel, This Little Light, is set in her new home of Calabasas, California. Lansens has also worked as a screenwriter, and her husband is a director and producer. The Girls was named a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults  by the American Library Association.