Author Talk, Christina Baker Kline, "The Foursome"

Darien Library and Barrett Bookstore are thrilled to welcome author, Christina Baker Kline, who will discuss her newest novel, The Foursome. The book is a bold and original reimagining of an astonishing true story: two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina - Kline’s own distant relatives - who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam, Eng and Chang Bunker.

A fascinating discussion not to be missed - we hope to see you there!

About the Book

When Chang and Eng Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.

Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Addie sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sallie, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined.

Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.

About the Author

A #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including Orphan Train, The Exiles, Please Don’t Lie (co-authored with Anne Burt), and the forthcoming The Foursome, Christina Baker Kline is published in more than 40 countries. Her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among other prizes, and have been chosen by hundreds of communities, universities, and schools as “One Book, One Read” selections. Her essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The San Francisco Chronicle.