num_pages: 345
description: Meet Rose and Ruby: sisters, best friends, confidantes, and conjoined twins. Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been known simply as "the girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs, love their parents, and follow their dreams. But the Darlens are special. Now nearing their 30th birthday, they are history's oldest craniopagus twins, joined at the head by a spot the size of a bread plate. When Rose, the bookish sister, sets out to write her autobiography, it inevitably becomes the story of her short but extraordinary life with Ruby, the beautiful one. From their awkward first steps--Ruby's arm curled around Rose's neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose's hips-- to the friendships they gradually build for themselves in the small town of Leaford, this is the profoundly affecting chronicle of an incomparable life journey.As Rose and Ruby's story builds to an unforgettable conclusion, Lansens aims at the heart of human experience--the hardship of loss and struggles for independence, and the fundamental joy of simply living a life. This is a breath taking novel, one that no reader will soon forget, a heartrending story of love between sisters.
language: English
title: The Girls
titlecomplete: The Girls
genres: Fiction, Family, Coming Of Age, Book Club, Canada, Drama, Adult, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Adult Fiction
ratings_count: 21532
places: Canada
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Longlist, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: Lincoln Award
publisher: Virago