When a beautiful boy is unexpectedly born as the twin to a girl in Ismailia, Egypt in 1968, the family pronounces him a miracle, and names him Taher, "the pure one." No one can imagine, at that time, the explosive impact he will one day have on the world. He grows up in a villa, surrounded by expansive fragrant gardens, flower pools, and flamingos. In contrast with his strong and resolute twin, Aisha, he is sensitive and studious. While Aisha helps deliver kittens under the azalea bushes and wins foot races, Taher frees butterflies from spiderwebs, daydreams, and memorizes the Qur'an.
As a teenager, Taher is deeply moved by the story of his cousin, Ahmed, a medical student in Cairo, who is wrongfully imprisoned in 1981 after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. When Ahmed is released and travels to Afghanistan to deliver medical help to the mujahideen fighting the Soviet Union's occupying forces, Taher joins him in an act of profound brotherhood. In Afghanistan, he meets Marek Kowalski, a Polish man who has joined the fight against the Soviets in private revenge for his mother's murder during the shipyard workers' uprising in Poland in 1970. Taher and Marek become close friends.
Taher argues against the Palestinian resistance movement that uses barbaric and manipulative tactics to send children on suicide missions against Israel, and while he devotes his early adulthood to aiding those affected by political conflicts in the Middle East, his twin sister emigrates to Germany, graduates from college, marries a German man, and starts a family. She is deeply concerned about Taher's life choices and tries to convince him to join her in Germany, finish his college degree, and settle down. But Taher's idealistic view of the world doesn't align with that of his westernized sister.
In pursuing his beliefs in the late nineties, Taher attends special training in Afghanistan along with his cousin, Ahmed. Against their expectations, the cousins are swept up in the brutal civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, and Aisha's fears for her brother grow as he becomes increasingly radicalized. Can Taher's ideals and dreams survive this experience, or will he be forever changed?
When We Were Twins explores the correlations between ethical convictions, religious beliefs, the freedom of imagination, and our sense of duty and responsibility to the people we love and want to protect. With powerful imagery and the undeniable weight of history, this story shows how innocence and loyalty to those we love can be twisted by political forces, leading a young man to choose a fateful path that changes the course of history.
About the Author: Danuta Hinc is an award-winning Polish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She holds an MA in Philology from the University of Gdańsk, Poland where her dissertation, titled Historia Literatury Jaroslawa Marka Rymkiewicza, won the National Competition for Best Dissertation in the Humanities. She completed three years of postgraduate studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and she received an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, where Danuta Hinc is an award-winning Polish American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She holds an MA in Philology from the University of Gdańsk, Poland where her dissertation, titled Historia Literatury Jaroslawa Marka Rymkiewicza, won Poland's National Competition for Best Dissertation in the Humanities. She completed three years of postgraduate studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and she received an MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, where she was awarded the Barry Hannah Merit Scholarship in Fiction.
When We Were Twins was translated from Polish by the author, and an earlier edition of the book was published under the title, To Kill the Other. Hinc's 2015 NPR interview with Lisa Morgan about the novel was later rebroadcast as one of the best interviews of the year. Currently, When We Were Twins is under active consideration for television adaptation by Netflix and HBO.
Hinc's essays and short fiction have appeared most recently in Literary Hub, Washingtonian Magazine, Popula, The Brick House, and Consequence Magazine, among others. She is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches writing.
