The book has two related themes. The first is a story of an improbable friendship between a rural, semi-literate, violent, heroin addicted Chicano and a Brooklyn bred Jew, who bonded almost immediately. Life drew them apart for almost half a century and when the friendship resumed, both Santana and Saul realized, to their satisfaction, that their feelings for the other had remained strong.

In the intervening years, however, their circumstances had changed radically. Santana, after spending much of his life in California prisons for violent crimes, had become a devout Christian and church pastor. Saul had become a successful businessman and remained an atheist.

The book shows how the strong bond survives the difference both in life circumstances and belief and suggests a way for others to follow.

"Saul Diskin's extraordinary memoir is rich with unique and wonderful intimacy-the intimacy of twinship. For me this made that closest of bonds come alive in a way no other book I've read has succeeded in doing. Diskin makes one feel like a twin, see the world through a twin's eyes, suffer with him in a way that is at times almost unbearably close and poignant. One becomes immersed in the life and death struggle. The medical detail is wonderfully well-done, as are all the relationships. The peculiar and overwhelming nature of twinship is brought out in a way that's both uncannily spirited and wholly down-to-earth; completely unsentimental. The reader participates at every point and on every page in an intimacy that he knows only death can end."

-JOHN BAYLEY, author of Elegy for Iris

..".you have captured the essence of the twin relationship more eloquently than anyone else I have ever read."

Nancy Segal, author of Entwined Lives, Indivisible by Two and Someone Else's Twin.

"What is it like to lose your mirror-image, your other half, your secret sharer? The End of the Twins is an arresting memoir that evokes the mysteries of twinship and the irrevocability of loss."

-ERICA JONG, author of Fear of Flying and Becoming Light

"A moving account of a unique bereavement from which we can all learn about love and loss."

-HAROLD S. KUSHNER, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

The book has two related themes. The first is a story of an improbable friendship between a rural, semi-literate, violent, heroin addicted Chicano and a Brooklyn bred Jew, who bonded almost immediately. Life drew them apart for almost half a century and when the friendship resumed, both Santana and Saul realized, to their satisfaction, that their feelings for the other had remained strong.

In the intervening years, however, their circumstances had changed radically. Santana, after spending much of his life in California prisons for violent crimes, had become a devout Christian and church pastor. Saul had become a successful businessman and remained an atheist.

The book shows how the strong bond survives the difference both in life circumstances and belief and suggests a way for others to follow.

"Saul Diskin's extraordinary memoir is rich with unique and wonderful intimacy-the intimacy of twinship. For me this made that closest of bonds come alive in a way no other book I've read has succeeded in doing. Diskin makes one feel like a twin, see the world through a twin's eyes, suffer with him in a way that is at times almost unbearably close and poignant. One becomes immersed in the life and death struggle. The medical detail is wonderfully well-done, as are all the relationships. The peculiar and overwhelming nature of twinship is brought out in a way that's both uncannily spirited and wholly down-to-earth; completely unsentimental. The reader participates at every point and on every page in an intimacy that he knows only death can end."

-JOHN BAYLEY, author of Elegy for Iris

..".you have captured the essence of the twin relationship more eloquently than anyone else I have ever read."

Nancy Segal, author of Entwined Lives, Indivisible by Two and Someone Else's Twin.

"What is it like to lose your mirror-image, your other half, your secret sharer? The End of the Twins is an arresting memoir that evokes the mysteries of twinship and the irrevocability of loss."

-ERICA JONG, author of Fear of Flying and Becoming Light

"A moving account of a unique bereavement from which we can all learn about love and loss."

-HAROLD S. KUSHNER, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People