Synopsis
Identical twins who were separated as children at Auschwitz and who both suffered at the hands of Dr. Josef Mengele reunite in Berlin and are drawn into a world of terror and violence
Reviews
London screenwriter LaPlante, whose beautifully nuanced TV drama Prime Suspect gathered praise on both sides of the Atlantic, batters her readers with this heavy-handed psychological melodrama about twins who were subjected to the experiments of Dr. Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. Rebekka, known also as Vebekka, is brought to post-wall Berlin by her wealthy husband for treatment of her violent, inexplicable rages, which threaten the lives of their children. Also newly arrived in Berlin is her twin Ruda, a lion tamer whose daring act is a visiting circus's main attraction. Separated since the war's end when they were preadolescents, Rebekka and Ruda have had very different lives: Rebekka was well cared for in America while Ruda survived by using her wits and by criminal behavior on the streets of post-war Europe. La Plante very gradually reveals the damage wrought by Mengele's experiments to induce telepathy in the twins (and also finally explains the surgical removal of Ruda's reproductive organs and the destruction of her genitals). While Rebekka begins her hypnosis treatment, Ruda's ambition moves her to further crime; as their histories are disclosed, the twins are led to a final overwrought meeting under a Berlin bigtop. No tension entwines in this tale.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This brutal thriller, which is set in Berlin after the dismantling of the infamous Wall, will find a wide audience. La Plante, a BBC writer and author of Bella Mafia ( LJ 1/91), has built strong female characters as well as unstoppable suspense. The protagonists, beautiful twins in their late forties, are survivors of Dr. Josef Mengele's experiments on children at the Auschwitz death camp. Vebekka is a wealthy countess who is plagued by self-destructive rages--until a skilled psychiatrist probes her past. Ruda, the world's most famous lion tamer, is twice a murderer. Her killings are described in grisly detail, and the sex scenes are not for the easily shocked. A stark, suspenseful novel in a minor key, recommended for adult readers in large public libraries.
- Joyce Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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