A profound human experience – and also a brilliant plot device – adoption has inspired endless stories, from Shakespeare to Jeanette Winterson
It’s easy to see why adoption is such a powerful source of storytelling. Mystery. Multiple identities. Families turned inside out.
In my novel The Doll Funeral, Ruby finds out she’s adopted on her 13th birthday. When she hears the news, she runs out into her unkempt garden and sings for joy to the storm clouds, so awful has her life been up to that point. This is the jumping-off point for everything, and her subsequent search for her real parents ends up uncovering terrible secrets in both her own and others’ families.
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