Twins Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), conjoined at the sternum by a band of cartilage and a fused liver, were "discovered" in Siam by a British merchant in 1824. Yunte Huang depicts the twins, arriving in Boston in 1829, first as museum exhibits but later as financially savvy showmen.

Their rise from freak-show celebrities to rich southern gentry; their marriage to two white sisters, resulting in twenty-one children; and their owning of slaves is here not just another sensational biography but an excavation of America's historical penchant for finding feast in the abnormal, for tyrannising the "other"-a tradition that, as Huang reveals, becomes inseparable from American history itself.

About the Author
Yunte Huang, a Guggenheim Fellow, has taught at Harvard and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is a Distinguished Professor of English. The author of the Edgar Award-winning biography Charlie Chan and Inseparable, both NBCC finalists, Huang speaks frequently about American popular culture.

Reviews
"In the follow-up to his Edgar Award-winning Charlie Chan biography, Huang uncovers ironies, paradoxes and examples of how Chang and Eng subverted what Leslie Fiedler called 'the tyranny of the normal." -- Jane Ciabattari, BBC
"It is a fascinating story..." -- Literary Review
"Yunte Huang's book Inseparable tells [a] remarkable story." -- The Times
"After retiring in a small North Carolina town, they owned as many as 32 slaves and, between them, fathered at least 21 children. If that doesn't intrigue you-wait, how can that not intrigue you?" -- The 50 Best Books of 2018 - Newsweek
"Yunte Huang is well placed to retell this extraordinary story of transnational celebrity and assimilation. Huang grew up in China... his Asian American focus is fresh and welcome." -- Times Literary Supplement


Awards
Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Award 2018. Long-listed for Plutarch Award 2019.



Book Information
ISBN 9780871404473
Author Yunte Huang
Format Hardback
Page Count 416
Imprint Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 725g
Dimensions(mm) 244mm * 165mm * 36mm