diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 845d04fc..98593b4f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -247,6 +247,18 @@ want. `additionalNamespaces` applies before `resolvePrefix`.
   converted to ``\u000A`` prior to parsing. The optimal code path for saxes is a
   file in which all end of line characters are already ``\u000A``.
 
+* Don't split Unicode strings you feed to saxes across surrogates. When you
+  naively split a string in JavaScript, you run the risk of splitting a Unicode
+  character into two surrogates. e.g.  In the following example ``a`` and ``b``
+  each contain half of a single Unicode character: ``const a = "\u{1F4A9}"[0];
+  const b = "\u{1F4A9}"[1]`` If you feed such split surrogates to versions of
+  saxes prior to 4, you'd get errors. Saxes version 4 and over are able to
+  detect when a chunk of data ends with a surrogate and carry over the surrogate
+  to the next chunk. However this operation entails slicing and concatenating
+  strings. If you can feed your data in a way that does not split surrogates,
+  you should do it. (Obviously, feeding all the data at once with a single write
+  is fastest.)
+
 ## FAQ
 
 Q. Why has saxes dropped support for limiting the size of data chunks passed to
diff --git a/lib/saxes.js b/lib/saxes.js
index 8907f1fb..6834994d 100644
--- a/lib/saxes.js
+++ b/lib/saxes.js
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ class SaxesParser {
     // effects.
     //
     this.prevI = 0;
-    this.trailingCR = false;
+    this.carriedFromPrevious = undefined;
     this.originalNL = true;
     this.forbiddenState = FORBIDDEN_START;
     /**
@@ -573,20 +573,24 @@ class SaxesParser {
     // isn't. (There may be Node-specific code that would perform faster than
     // ``Array.from`` but don't want to be dependent on Node.)
 
-    if (this.trailingCR) {
-      // The previous chunk had a trailing cr. We need to handle it now.
-      chunk = `\r${chunk}`;
-      this.trailingCR = false;
+    if (this.carriedFromPrevious !== undefined) {
+      // The previous chunk had char we must carry over.
+      chunk = `${this.carriedFromPrevious}${chunk}`;
+      this.carriedFromPrevious = undefined;
     }
 
     let limit = chunk.length;
-    if (!end && chunk[limit - 1] === "\r") {
-      // The chunk ends with a trailing CR. We cannot know how to handle it
-      // until we get the next chunk or the end of the stream. So save it for
-      // later.
+    const lastCode = chunk.charCodeAt(limit - 1);
+    if (!end &&
+        // A trailing CR or surrogate must be carried over to the next
+        // chunk.
+        (lastCode === CR || (lastCode >= 0xD800 && lastCode <= 0xDBFF))) {
+      // The chunk ends with a character that must be carried over. We cannot
+      // know how to handle it until we get the next chunk or the end of the
+      // stream. So save it for later.
+      this.carriedFromPrevious = chunk[limit - 1];
       limit--;
       chunk = chunk.slice(0, limit);
-      this.trailingCR = true;
     }
 
     this.chunk = chunk;
diff --git a/test/unicode.js b/test/unicode.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..01eb8c59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unicode.js
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+"use strict";
+
+const { test } = require(".");
+
+describe("unicode test", () => {
+  describe("poop", () => {
+    const xml = "<a>💩</a>";
+    const expect = [
+      ["opentagstart", { name: "a", attributes: {} }],
+      ["opentag", { name: "a", attributes: {}, isSelfClosing: false }],
+      ["text", "💩"],
+      ["closetag", { name: "a", attributes: {}, isSelfClosing: false }],
+    ];
+
+    test({
+      name: "intact",
+      xml,
+      expect,
+    });
+
+    test({
+      name: "sliced",
+      fn(parser) {
+        // This test purposely slices the string into the poop character.
+        parser.write(xml.slice(0, 4));
+        parser.write(xml.slice(4));
+        parser.close();
+      },
+      expect,
+    });
+  });
+});