Mischling

By Affinity Konar

Book Overview

A New York Times Notable Book An Amazon Best Book of the Year A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick An Indie Next Pick A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year A Flavorwire Best Book of the Year An Elle Best Book of the Year "One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year" (Anthony Doerr) about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II. Pearl is in charge of: the sad, the good, the past. Stasha must care for: the funny, the future, the bad. It's 1944 when the twin sisters arrive at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather. In their benighted new world, Pearl and Stasha Zagorski take refuge in their identical natures, comforting themselves with the private language and shared games of their childhood. As part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo, the girls experience privileges and horrors unknown to others, and they find themselves changed, stripped of the personalities they once shared, their identities altered by the burdens of guilt and pain. That winter, at a concert orchestrated by Mengele, Pearl disappears. Stasha grieves for her twin, but clings to the possibility that Pearl remains alive. When the camp is liberated by the Red Army, she and her companion Feliks--a boy bent on vengeance for his own lost twin--travel through Poland's devastation. Undeterred by injury, starvation, or the chaos around them, motivated by equal parts danger and hope, they encounter hostile villagers, Jewish resistance fighters, and fellow refugees, their quest enabled by the notion that Mengele may be captured and brought to justice within the ruins of the Warsaw Zoo. As the young survivors discover what has become of the world, they must try to imagine a future within it. A superbly crafted story, told in a voice as exquisite as it is boundlessly original, MISCHLING defies every expectation, traversing one of the darkest moments in human history to show us the way toward ethereal beauty, moral reckoning, and soaring hope.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316308102
• ISBN13: 9780316308106
• Release Date: September 2016
• Publisher: Lee Boudreaux Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Germany world war ll

A Beautifully exceptionally written story..about the nightmares.of the captured Jewish children..who are brought to Auschwitz..and straight into the hands of the " Angel of Death" Dr. Mengele ! .Of his inhumane way..anyone could possible treat human beings...let alone that they are children..small, big, younger, older ones..even newborns !! This is what the notorious EVIL Dr. Mengele did..to these small innocent children.That ANY could survive and have hope ..or an ounce of love left in their tortured little bodies and minds ...is unbelievable...! This is story of two twin sisters...Pearl and Stasha who are inseparable from the moment they were created..and even more ..in everyday life..But they ARE separated by the cruel Dr. Mengele and his bizarre inhumane experiments. His insane mind..loving twins as his study.....to choice one..to experiment on...and to see how the other one ..who hasen't been touched..reacts to their twins pain !! The struggles they go through ...the friends on the bunks next to them.. that are just like them...lab rats at the hands of Dr. Uncle..How ..they are taken on a death march..when Germany is losing and the Russians are very close to their camp..Auschwitz..their struggles along the way..and the awful hardships...and through it all..the one sister Pearl..REFUSED to believe that her sister Stasha.. was gone for ever..or that they would never be together again in this world ! There is so much Love and Hope on every single page..even as they suffer through the experiments...it is so so Beautifully written..so much sensitivity and power in every page...an Absolute must read for anyone loving historical fiction..just a riveting hard to put down book ! If I could..it would be 10 stars !! An Awesome writer..to say the least who deserves every award for writing that is out there !!! ❣

Holocaust book

The title is misleading. This book is based off Mengele's experiments on twins.

Great historical fiction on the Holocaust

I’m obsessed with Holocaust and WW2 books, both fiction and non fiction, and this is one of the best. It’s wonderfully written and heartfelt.