The Stolen Twins

By: Shari J. Ryan

Narrated by: Eleanor Yates

Auschwitz, 1944: “You can’t leave me,” I whisper, my hand trembling as I reach for her cheek. “You can’t. We’re in this life together, always, just you and me.” Born minutes apart, Arina and Nora have never left each other’s side—until now....

The cattle car is dark, except for the light filtering through the boarded windows. There are too many of us to count, crushed up against each other. The air is stuffy, carrying the scent of our terror—none of us know what awaits us when this train stops. I cling onto Mama’s hand, and Nora, my twin sister, clutches Papa’s.

After what feels like forever, the train stops. We spill out of the carriage, the sun blinding us after being imprisoned in darkness for so long. There are people everywhere, soldiers separating children from their parents, husbands from wives.

We’re in some sort of queue, and a man in a dark-green SS uniform walks by, glancing at everyone he passes. “Twins, twins,” he shouts. My heart falls into the pit of my stomach.

“Right here,” says Mama, hesitation in her voice. “My daughters are twins.” My eyes widen, and Nora trembles. Papa tries to tell Mama to be quiet, but it’s too late.

The Nazi catches sight of us. “Twins,” he says again, pausing to inspect Nora and me. “Yes, you are, aren’t you? You two are going to come along with me.”

©2023 Shari J. Ryan (P)2023 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Nora

A remarkable reed, very interesting learning history through those that actually experienced the war. I would recommend this book to others

Historical relevance

I liked the way some factual information was presented. I have studied World War Two and although this is fictional the story allows people to look up things that happened during the war. It opens up conversations about the truth so that we may never repeat that horror.

Stepping out of the shadows

Mengele has been written about countless times and historical fiction sanitizes events. The descriptive nature of this book brought us another step closer to the truth, but in such a way as to make it palatable to read.

Heartbreaking

This is a horrific book that touches on the many horrible and inhumane things done to people in one of the concentration camps during the most tragic times in our history. I found the narrative very hard but important for us to remember. So many many stories still untold. The fact of children being sent to the USA after from the concentration camps I did not know and would like to find other books on that. Will definitely be looking for more books by this author.

Softening the blow of human cruelty

The story was beyond sad and heartbreaking- there seems sometimes difficulty in articulating a very very intense reality, so hats off to the author and editors x

Loved the story - very moving…but…

Because the performer pronounced “Mengele” and “Aleck” (sic), often differently within two minutes, it was very distracting

Shallow for a Deep Topic

I teach the Holocaust and have read many historical fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs on the subject. This was easy to listen to, but it didn’t dive into the horrific treatment twins were subjected to during Mengele’s hideous experimentations. If I didn’t know the history, I wouldn’t have thought the treatment wasn’t as bad as it truly was in real life. There are so many fantastic accounts of this time period, that I feel you have to be stellar when writing fiction on the topic.

Outstanding

Beautifully written and narrated, hartbreaking, but inspiring, couldn't put it down, finished in 2 days

Predictable and lackluster

Very predictable and lacked character development. Disappointed I wasted my monthly credit on this purchase. If you read a lot of historical fiction, I’d recommend skipping this book and author.