Book Review: One-Two

In One-Two, Igor Eliseev narrates a story with a difference. Faith and Hope are two conjoined babies, who find themselves special. In the words of one of them, “Very long time ago, when the earth was inhabited with centaurs and unicorns, there also lived beautiful two-headed people. As the millennia passed by, they built the houses and cities and lived happily ever after. But once upon a time the two most beautiful women who were joined together gave birth to an unusual girl. As soon as she came into the world, she gave her two mothers such a terrifying sight that they grew numb with disgust: their daughter had only one head. “How ugly she is, the gods must have cursed us for something,” one of them just uttered and burst into tears. All night long the women were inconsolable but at daybreak, after arguing for long, they finally decided to take the terrible child into the woods and leave her there though they perfectly knew she wouldn’t be able to survive alone.” “She managed to survive. Trees gave her shelter from heat and cold, wild animals brought her food, she satiated her thirst with water from a river. Some time has passed; the girl has grown up strong and healthy and gave life to the whole race of the one-headed people who populated all our earth and still dwell there.”

They spend their childhood in a foster home and obtain primary education. Though the constant interruptions fro humiliations from society is always there, some light also could be seen – separation surgery is possible.

This novel is a graphical presentation of the difficulties and obstacles these girls meet on their way. And how they are putting up with all the public cynicism along with other constraints and conflicts. How they find a justification for their condition and accept it? This novel gives a good description of the search for answers to these and many other questions the protagonists face.

One-Two is a riveting novel that taxed (desirably, of course!) my psyche from the very first page to the last. The drama and its settings are so chosen as to give a sense of time and place, the main events being towards the later half of last century. It is a very good book to read, the theme, a refreshing variation, the narration, an easy and enjoyable style with each one of the characters also greatly different from the common. Cute illustrations and even cuter fonts for the imaginative chapter names also stand out, lending an aura of a real dream.