Cover of The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts

The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts

Catherine McKinley was one of only a few thousand African American and bi-racial children adopted by white couples in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Raised in a small, white New England town, she grew up with a persistent longing. After a five-year search marked by disappointment, she finds her birth mother and a half-sister named Sarah, the name originally given to her. When she locates her birth father and several of his eleven other children, she is then confronted with a revelation that threatens to destabilize all she has uncovered. In telling of her struggles, McKinley challenges us to rethink our own preconceptions about race, loyalty, and love.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 304 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. My Family, A Symphony: A Memoir of Global Adoption Shares adoption, memoir, nonfiction
  2. In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories Shares adoption, memoir, nonfiction
  3. He Just Needs To Be Loved: A family's struggle with an adopted son's disorders and his triumph over them. Shares adoption, memoir, nonfiction
  4. Inside Transracial Adoption

“People who read The Book of Sarahs: A Family in Parts tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Baby Thief: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption
  2. Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up To Become Malcolm X
  3. A Stranger at Home
  4. Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Ghost of Sangju
  2. Lost Found: The Adoption Experience
  3. Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother
  4. Love You More: The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter

“If it was the adoption that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Who Gives Up Adorable Little Girls Anyway?
  2. When Rain Hurts: An Adoptive Mother's Journey with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
  3. The Eye of Adoption: The True Story of My Turbulent Wait for a Baby
  4. Lost & Found: A Memoir of Mothers

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. A Stranger in the Family
  2. My Secret Sister
  3. Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada
  4. September's Child #1