Christina Baker Kline | THE FOURSOME in conversation with Alex Sink

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Christina Baker Kline comes a boldly original reimagining of the astonishing true story of two sisters in nineteenth-century North Carolina — Kline’s own distant relatives — who married world-famous conjoined twins from Siam.
When Eng and Chang Bunker arrive in Wilkes County in 1839, they’re not just a curiosity—they’re a sensation. Everyone is eager to learn whether the salacious rumors about them are true. Within months, the twins have opened a general store, bought land, and begun building a plantation. Now, word has it, they’re looking for wives—and in a place that thrives on gossip and legacy, their ambitions set the community on edge.

Sarah and Adelaide Yates, daughters of a once-prominent local family brought low by scandal, are drawn into their orbit. Bold, beautiful Adelaide sees in the twins’ fame a chance to reclaim her future. Sarah, quiet and observant, isn’t so sure. When the twins’ lives become entangled with theirs, they must navigate loyalty, longing, and identity in a world where everything—including race, class, and gender—is rigidly defined.

Spanning five decades and unfolding against the backdrop of a fractured nation hurtling toward war, The Foursome is both intimate and epic: a story of love and constraint, identity and reinvention. With piercing insight and emotional precision, Kline brings to life a forgotten chapter of American history and the complex, boundary-defying marriages at its center.

Christina Baker Kline is the author of ten novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Orphan Train, The Exiles, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Society Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and several bookseller awards, among other prizes. Born in England, she was raised in the American South and Maine. She lives in New York City and in Southwest Harbor, Maine.

Alex Sink is the great granddaughter of Chang and Adelaide Bunker. She grew up in the home Chang built for his family of 10 children near Mount Airy, North Carolina. The family farm has been in continuous operation since the 1840's. Alex and her sister Dottie recently inherited the house and farm and are planning for its future preservation as a testament to the amazing story of the Twins and their wives, Adelaide and Sarah.

Alex is a longtime resident of Tampa, having served as President of the Bank of America (Florida) and as the elected CFO of the State of Florida. She is the founder of Ruth's List Florida and serves on several Tampa area nonprofit boards.

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