Thursday, October 13, 2022

Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki

 

Publisher: Algonquin Books 
Publication date: October 11, 2022
Pages: 320
This is a review of a review copy from  the publisher.


Nha Trang, Việt Nam, 1998: Life is not easy for Liên. She has two newborn baby girls but very little money. Things get even more difficult when one of the girls becomes very ill, and might not even make it alive. To make sure they both survive, one of the girls, Loan is brought to an orphanage. The other girl, Hà is brought to her their biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village where there was only sporadically electricity, but she lived a happy life, going to school, and playing outside with the neighbors.

Loan was adopted by an American family; Keely Solimene and her husband, and renamed Isabella. They also adopted another girl from the orphanage, Olivia.  Isabella grew up grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, where they went to school, played soccer and prepared for college.

But then Keely finds out from the adoption papers that Isabella has a biological twin sister back in Vietnam. And this changes the lives of both families forever. 

Beside the story of Isabella and Hà, the author gives context in seperate chapters about the history of international adoptions, the pro's and con's and the sensitive and racial issues that come with adoption in a broader aspect. Like, for example, the real issues that now grown up adoptees face that their adoptive parents, unkowingly, never completed the process in the past of making them legal US citizens. Because now many adoptees are at risk of being deported to their birth country. And also the 'white savior' complex that was long the trend from white parents to adopt. These chapter are true eye openers and show a light on many things come with adoption not everyone thinks about. It is beautifully written, entertaining and educating at the same time, which I loved. A very unique and original book that I recommend reading!!



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