8 Books That Fuel Our Fascination with Twins

A few weeks ago, I went along to our local theatre to watch my fourteen-year-old son perform in a Shakespeare Schools Festival production of Twelfth Night. The hush in the auditorium as Sebastian walked onstage into the presence of Viola-disguised-as-Cesario; the satisfied sigh from the audience as brother and sister finally recognized each other—these moments have been enjoyed by millions of people, all over the world, through more than four centuries. What better example is there of our enduring fascination with twins?

When you think about the rôles twins can play in fiction, all sorts of delicious possibilities spring to mind. They might be separated at birth—or when older, as with Viola and Sebastian. They might have their own private language, or a psychic bond that we singletons can only envy. They might be mistaken for one another, or they might be dependent on each other, or perhaps one is an Evil Twin and they’re pitted against each other. The sibling bond is powerful in fiction, but the twin bond is doubly so.

I’ve drawn up a list of books that all feature twins, so I hope there’s something here to whet your appetite. As a reader, I relish that spine-tingling moment in a story, summed up by the whisper from my nine-year-old son, sitting next to me in the theatre, when Shakespeare’s twins each realized the other was still alive: “Woah.” The twins in these eight books promise to give you that moment and more.

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

Adeline and Emmeline are out-of-control twins growing up in a wealthy but unstable family. The bond between them is powerful and, at times, destructive. The book opens with a reclusive author, approaching the end of her life, deciding to tell the truth—or at least, part of the truth—about her disturbing childhood. She convinces her reluctant biographer to listen to her tale, and her memories take her back to Angelfield, her family’s estate, long since burnt to the ground under mysterious circumstances. The identity of Adeline and Emmeline, and the exact relationship between them, is more complicated than the biographer at first understands, and gradually the elderly author reveals the dark secrets that have haunted her all her life.

The Twins, Saskia Sarginson

In this story, the twins—Isolte and Viola—share an incredibly close bond through the early part of their eccentric childhood, until something happens one summer that shatters their lives and sends them off on diverging paths. In the present day, Isolte leads a seemingly happy, successful life, while her sister struggles with illness and guilt. With Viola deteriorating, Isolte realizes that she has to return to her sister and face up to what happened all those years ago.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, Kim Edwards

This story begins with a fateful decision made by a doctor in the moments after he delivers his own baby twins, Paul and Phoebe. The first baby, Paul, is perfectly healthy. But when Phoebe is born, the doctor immediately sees she has Down’s Syndrome. Believing he’s protecting his wife from a lifetime of heartache, he persuades the nurse to take the little girl away, and he tells his wife that the baby died. But instead of taking Phoebe to an institution, the nurse decides to raise her as her own child. The repercussions for each of the children—and their biological parents—are profound.

The Third Twin, Ken Follett

Steve and Dan appear on paper to be identical twins, but when they come to the attention of genetics and criminality researcher, Jeannie Ferrami, she can’t explain why the records suggest they were born to two different mothers, two weeks apart. Steve is a law student and Dan is a convicted murderer. Jeannie embarks on a relationship with Steve, but when he too is accused of a terrible crime, her loyalties are tested, and her investigation begins to uncover a wide-reaching conspiracy involving genetic experiments.

The Switch, Sandra Brown

Gillian and Melina are identical twins who used to switch places frequently as children. One day they come close to doing the same as adults, until Gillian backs out. The very next day, Gillian is found brutally murdered, and Melina suspects a link to her sister’s attempts to conceive a child by artificial insemination. But as Melina attempts to track down her sister’s killer, she realizes she, too, is in danger.

Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger

Julia and Valentina are twins who inherit, from an estranged aunt, a beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery. They move there from America, and both look forward to a fresh start—particularly Valentina, who is the weaker twin and who longs to break away from her sister to form a life of her own. But the girls witness strange happenings in the flat, and alongside Valentina’s increasingly extreme plans to break free, there are dark family secrets waiting to be unearthed.

Two Little Girls in Blue, Mary Higgins Clark

Three-year-old twins, Kathy and Kelly, are kidnapped in Connecticut for an eight million dollar ransom. Kelly is recovered when the ransom is paid, but her parents are told that Kathy was inadvertently killed. However, the twins have an apparent telepathic connection, so when Kelly starts to describe her sister feeling scared and wanting to come home, it’s impossible to resist the hope that the missing child may in fact still be alive.

Beside Myself, Ann Morgan

Ellie and Helen are identical twins who switch places as a game when they’re six years old. Helen is the good girl, the favored daughter—or at least, she always has been, up until the point where Ellie insists on keeping Helen’s identity by refusing to switch back. The repercussions for each girl highlight just how much people’s subconscious expectations affect children’s behavior. Years later, as an adult, Helen receives a phone call that might just lead to the original deception finally being exposed.