Chosen: Living with Adoption

Chosen brings together writing and poetry by over 50 UK adopted adults born between 1934 and 1984. Through a broad range of perspectives – adoption within the extended family, late discovery adopted adults, transracial and transnational adoption, those who have searched for their birth family, and by those who did not search but were found by a birth relative – they capture the life-changing power of adoption and the different meanings it can take on at different stages in one’s life.

The themes of identity and belonging, loss and grief, roots and searching, family and “post-reunion” relationships permeate these first-hand accounts of adoption, as does the power of acceptance and healing, encouragement and hope, and taking responsibility for the direction one’s life takes, whatever one’s beginnings. Together the writers add to our understanding of the lifelong impact of adoption, offering the reader a wealth of insights and wisdom, together with advice for adopted people and contemporary parents.

Chosen is an important, thought-provoking and insightful book – a must-read not only for adopted people and their families, but also for social workers, psychologists, counsellors and anyone else seeking to understand what it is like to be adopted.