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Published Feb 2014
256 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
In Make Me a Mother, acclaimed memoirist Susanne Antonetta adopts an infant from Seoul, South Korea. After meeting their six-month-old son, Jin, at the airport - an incident made memorable when Susanne, so eager to meet her son, is chased down by security - Susanne and her husband learn lessons common to all parents, such as the lack of sleep and the worry and joy of loving a child. They also learn lessons particular to their own family: not just how another being can take over your life but how to let an entire culture in, how to discuss birth parents who gave up a child, and the tricky steps required to navigate race in America.
In the end, her relationship with her son teaches Susanne to understand her own troubled childhood and to forgive and care for her own aging parents. Susanne comes to realize how, time and time again, all families have to learn to adopt one another.
"Starred Review. Antonetta's generous, humbling take on adoption adds another layer to today's vastly "changing landscape of family," where couples seeking adoption don't necessarily have infertility issues and ethnic make-up tends more toward the richly diverse." - Publishers Weekly
"An award-winning memoirist's moving account of how adopting a South Korean baby taught her about motherhood and love." - Kirkus
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Susanne Antonetta is the author of the memoirs A Mind Apart and A Body Toxic, a New York Times Notable Book, as well as the poetry collections Bardo, Petitioner, Glass, and, most recently, The Lives of the Saints. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Republic, Best American Essays, and other publications. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband and son.
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