About.com guide Marcy Dermansky's debut novel TWINS is being released by William Morrow on September 6, 2005.
On the eve of their thirteenth birthday, identical twins Chloe and Sue agree to get matching tattoos to prove their bond is stronger than DNA. So begins TWINS, the comic and disturbingly honest story of twin sisters trying to survive adolescence--and each other.
Told in alternating voices, TWINS introduces two new heroines on the verge. The obsessively defiant Sue, four minutes younger, resents and idolizes her seemingly perfect twin, Chloe. All Chloe wants, however, is to please her sister and -- only if Sue will allow it -- find a friend of her own. Neglected by their wealthy parents and cynical older brother, burdened by a loving dog they can't properly care for, and bewildered by a complex social universe they somehow don't fit into, Chloe and Sue are left to fend for themselves.
Over the course of five years, Chloe and Sue overcome breakups, unhappy Hawaiian vacations, unicycle lessons, eating disorders, pill abuse, and their first painful explorations of love and sex. TWINS brings us into the wounded hearts of audacious teenagers, where the line between hatred and love is blurred and where everyone -- including the family pet -- is vulnerable. Marcy Dermansky's debut novel pairs comedy and redemption in the face of suburban despair.
A MacDowell Fellow, Marcy Dermansky is the winner of the 2002 Smallmouth Press Andre Dubus Novella Award and the 1999 Story Magazine Carson McCullers short story prize. Her short fiction has appeared in The Indiana Review, McSweeney’s, The Alaska Quarterly Review and The Mississippi Review. She has been a film critic for About.com since 2000 and belongs to the New York Film Critics Online.
Advance Praise for TWINS
"Sometimes despairing, sometimes blackly humorous, always engrossing and thoroughly original. A wonderful debut."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A beguiling story of the powerful ties between identical twins… Dermansky has crafted a memorable novel."
--Booklist
"A startlingly beautiful love story… A thrill to read… The most detailed, disturbing, and loveable oddball romance you’ll ever read."
--Frederick Barthelme, author of Elroy Nights
"TWINS is spectacular, weird, extraordinarily real, and funny in ways they don’t have names for. Marcy Dermansky's novel grabs your heart from the first sentence, and breaks it by the end."
--Jerry Stahl, Author of Permanent Midnight
"Dermansky is a lyrical, gifted, and original writer.…With a style that’s extremely accessible and lots of fun."
--Janice Eidus, author of The Celibacy Club
"Who would have known that the perils of being a twin are also the perils of life? Marcy Dermansky has captured, in her funny and honest book, what it takes to survive those perils, and what it means to live that life."
--John Haskell, Author of American Pugatorio
