“I promise: you will never forget this extraordinary story… Lori Lansens' blend of tragedy and comedy will touch you deeply.”
— ISABEL ALLENDE

“A tale of kindness, love, and the off things life throws at us, no matter our circumstances… The backdrop of sisters who share an essential brain vein offers complications that give the story special meaning, but Lansens' writing is so haunting and filled with the ache of dreams unrealized, the characters seem just like everyone else… Make sure, by the end, you have plenty of tissues handy.”
— USA TODAY

“An engagingly perverse novel about twins conjoined spiritually as well as physically.”
— THE NEW YORK TIMES

“The Girls, by Lori Lansens, is a ballad, a melancholy song of two very strange, enchanted girls who live out their peculiar, ordinary lives is a rural corner of Canada….The Girls glides by like a watercolor dream, finding its poetry in dailiness and the universalities of human desire and connection….Lansens, who has a gentle, open way of writing, makes of these two girls a kind of perfect marriage, harmonious and everlasting.”
— THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“[The Girls] is an immensely readable novel, compelling and convincing….[A]n enchanting blend of the extraordinary and the everyday.”
— NEW STATESMAN

“Now and then a book comes along that you want to savor – every phrase, every nuance, every little moment, you want to carry with you long after you've closed the cover. So it is with The Girls.… As much as you want Rose and Ruby's story to continue, you know it can't. But these unforgettable characters will live on outside the pages of this book.”
— THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR

“Remarkable.… This is a book that reaches beyond connection, beyond intimacy and necessity, beyond even love. Lansens has reached – and grasped – a story that asks us to consider the human condition.… The Girls will stay with you for a long time, as will your wish to have a heart as big as theirs.”
— MONITOR

“Lori Lansens' novel The Girls is a perfect marriage of the unusual and the universal…. The Girls can be read as an unironic portrait of the charms of small-town life in the mold of Anne of Green Gables or the early chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird…. The Girls also diplays a sharp but affectionate understanding of human nature that makes it likely to stand the test of time.”
— DAILY YOMIURI

“This is not a book about the grotesque but a book about love, about being bound to someone else and accepting the situation gracefully, even gratefully.”
— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“A fascinating-and at times heartbreaking-read about two independent young women.”
— CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“Extraordinarily moving: joyous, heartbreaking, and shot through with moments of dark humor…. The voices of Rose and Ruby cry out to be heard for their glorious celebration of humanity.”
— VOGUE

“You won't pity the girls, but you'll feel richer for having seen their world.”
— GLAMOUR

“In her second novel, author Lori Lansens makes a gentle, persuasive case for everyone's individuality, writing two first-person memoirs in the voices of twins linked permanently through a shared, and inseparable, vein in their attached heads.”
— BOSTON GLOBE

“Lansens beats the odds: A book that could have been tasteless provides a complex consideration of identity and individuality, of sameness and difference, of what it means to be normal and what it takes to feel at home in the world.” Three stars (out of four)
— PEOPLE MAGAZINE

“[Lansens'] real triumph is this strange story's rich context: a Canadian farming community where we encouter the full spectrum of human frailty.”
— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Lansens fully imparts the sweet triumph of such unique lives.”
— DAILY NEWS

“Lori Lansens creates two distinct voices with rare beauty…. Lansens handles issues of intimacy and privacy with warmth and humour.”
— THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“The Girls skillfully tackles a tricky subject with both laugh-out-loud humor and grace.”
— REDBOOK

“Pure joy. What wonderful writing.”
— JANE HAMILTON, author of A Map of the World

“The novel is utterly compelling, the women's voices entirely distinct but contrapuntal and forthright, the story they tell together as emotionally powerful as any 'real' memoir. But what is truly clever about this novel is its resolute adherence, behind the guise of memoir, to the mandates of fiction, pushing us with the fantastical and the absurd-exercising our abilities to imagine.”
— NEWSDAY

“It is the true test of a writer's mettle to create a convincing narrator, and Lori Lansens has done it not once but twice in her remarkable novel about conjoined twins. The two fascinating protagonists of The Girls live their lives together in every way, and yet nevertheless emerge with beliefs and desires all their own, and with distinct outlooks on their difficult circumstances. We are all fortunate for a novelist with so delicate and sensitive a touch.”
— ARTHUR GOLDEN, author of Memoirs of a Geisha

“Remarkable.… This is a deeply moving story of two unusual women and their struggles for independence and acceptance. This is one that will stay with you long after you read it. ”
— DAILY AMERICAN

“Lansens overcomes the "ick" factor in this surprisingly moving story…. The novel's power lies in the wonderful narrative voices of Rose and Ruby. Lansens has created a richly nuanced, totally believable sibling relationship…. An unsentimental, heartwarming page-turner. Quite an achievement.”
— KIRKUS, starred review

“The biggest achievement in the novel is bringing to life these two extraordinary characters to such a degree that readers may forget they are reading fiction.”
— BOOKLIST, starred review

“Extraordinary. A masterful and sophisticated duet. A multidimensional vision of the sisters' lives.”
— TIME MAGAZINE

“A stunner. Immensely exciting. A tribute to the extraordinariness of human consciousness. Laced with delightful comic moments. Not just a sophisticated literary accomplishment but a darned good read.”
—THE TORONTO STAR

“The best book of the year… a staggeringly beautiful, often wildly funny work about being different and proud of it… a wholly unique love story… awesome.”
— NOW MAGAZINE

“A compelling read (I devoured it in one sitting). Lansens' beautiful writing is so detailed that it is often easy to forget that the material is not based on a true story. She captures what it would be like never to sleep, bathe, go for a walk, or meet friends on your own.”
— THE NATIONAL POST

“A masterful tale.”
— METRO, TORONTO