It's 1944 when twin sisters Pearl and Stasha Zagorski arrive at Auschwitz with their mother and grandfather, and the girls find refuge in the private language and shared games of their childhood. As part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo, the girls experience privileges and horrors unknown to others, even as they are altered by the burdens of guilt and pain. After a camp concert, Pearl disappears, but Stasha holds out hope of finding her alive. When the camp is liberated by the Red Army, Stasha and her companion Feliks—a boy bent on vengeance for his own lost twin—travel through Poland's devastation to discover what has become of the world, trying to imagine a future within it.

"One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year."—Anthony Doerr