Identical Strangers - ProfilesArchive

About Me

"Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited" by Elyse Schein and Paula BernsteinElyse Schein had always known she was adopted, but it wasn't until her mid-thirties while living in Paris that she searched for her biological mother. When Elyse contacted her adoption agency, she was not prepared for the shocking, life-changing news she received: She had an identical twin sister. Elyse was then hit with another bombshell: she and her sister had been separated as infants, and for a time, had been part of a secret study on separated twins.Paula Bernstein, a married writer and mother living in New York, also knew she was adopted, but had no inclination to find her birth mother. When she answered a call from the adoption agency one spring afternoon, Paula's life suddenly divided into two starkly different periods: the time before and the time after she learned the truth.As they reunite and take their tentative first steps from strangers to sisters, Paula and Elyse are also left with haunting questions surrounding their origins and their separation. They learn that the study was conducted by a pair of influential psychiatrists associated with a prestigious adoption agency. As they investigate their birth mother's past, Paula and Elyse move closer toward solving the puzzle of their lives.In alternating voices, Paula and Elyse write with emotional honesty about the immediate intimacy they share as twins and the wide chasm that divides them as two complete strangers. Interweaving eyeopening studies and statistics on twin science into their narrative, they offer an intelligent and heartfelt glimpse into human nature.Identical Strangers is the amazing story of two women coming to terms with the strange and unbelievable hand fate has dealt them, an account that broadens the definition of family and provides insight into our own DNA and the singularly exceptional imprint it leaves on our lives.A "transfixing memoir" - Publishers Weekly"Poignant" - Reader's Digest (Editor's Choice)"Absorbing" - Wired"Fascinating... An intelligent exploration of how identity intersects with bloodlines. A must-read for anybody interested in what it means to be a family" - Bust

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Click here to buy the book

Movies:

Wings of Desire, La Double Vie de Veronique, Breaking the Waves, The Piano, The Shining, Annie, Secrets and Lies, Flirting with Disaster, The Parent Trap, Single White Female, Dead Ringers, Poto and Cabengo, Oskar and Jack, Persona, Vivre Sa Vie

Books:

Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are by Lawrence Wright; The Kid by Dan Savage; The Double by Fyodor Dostoevsky; The Twins Who Found Each Other by Bard Lindeman; I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb; Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior by Nancy L. Segal; As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl by John Colapinto; The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera; Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir by Paula McClain; The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler; William Wilson by Edgar Allan Poe; Borrowed Finery: A Memoir by Paula Fox; ITHAKA: A Daughter's MEMOIR of Being Found by Sarah Saffian; The Chosen Baby by Valentina P. Wasson; Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman, Living with Our Genes by Dean Hamer; Les Deux Ophelines by Adolphe d'Ennery

My Blog

Letter to Olsen Twins

Dear Mary-Kate and Ashley,We saw your comments in the LA Times and are sorry to hear you're having a hard time forging your own identities.If you read our book, we promise you'll gain new insight into...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:11:00 PST

Books for a Better Life

We are thrilled to announce that "Identical Strangers" was among the winners of the 2007 Books for a Better Life Awards, which honor the best self-improvement titles of the past year. On February 25,...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:49:00 PST

Brooklyn Writers Space Reading Series

BROOKLYN WRITERS SPACE READING SERIES PRESENTS*PAULA BERNSTEIN * ELYSE SCHEIN * EDMUND LEE * DOMINIC PREZIOSI * Monday, JANUARY 28 7PM * Union Hall (Downstairs)702 Union Street @ 5th Ave Brooklyn*FR...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:36:00 PST

January readings in Brooklyn

Hello to all of our Brooklyn friends (and other NYC dwellers),We'll be doing two readings in our fair borough during the month of January and we hope you can make it to at least one of them!Monday, ...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 06:34:00 PST

What a year its been!

As 2008 approaches, we would like to acknowledge our readers for helping to make 2007 so special. We appreciate all of the thoughtful e-mails we've received. It means so much to us to know that people...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:01:00 PST

"Identical Strangers" takes on the world

Hi everyone.Elyse and I are excited to announce that we have sold foreign rights to "Identical Strangers" to Australia, New Zealand, France, The Netherlands, China and Taiwan! So spread the word to yo...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:20:00 PST

Philly and Long Island, NY, here we come!

Hi everyone.Elyse and I are excited to announce that we'll be doing a reading and signing at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum as part of their "Identity" exhibit this Thursday, Novembe...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:59:00 PST

"Today" and "The View"

Hi everyone.It's nice to be back home in NYC. We had a great turnout the other night for our reading/talk/party at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan.We were thrilled to be featured this morning on NBC Ne...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:40:00 PST

The tour continues -- Detroit and New York are up next.

Hi everyone.We just got home from an exciting week touring out West. We appeared at the SF Jewish Book Festival, Booksmith and Portland's famed Wordstock festival. We had the opportunity to meet accla...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:48:00 PST

San Francisco (and Portland), here we come!

Hi friends,It's hard to believe that today marks one month since "Identical Strangers" first went on sale. It's been quite a whirlwind since then. So far, we've hit Toronto, Atlanta, Phoenix and, of c...
Posted by Identical Strangers on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:42:00 PST