Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An NPR Best Book of 2022
An incredible, deeply reported story of identical twins Isabella and H , born in Vi t Nam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other's existence until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds.
"Stirring and unforgettable--a breathtaking adoption saga like no other." --Robert Kolker
It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Việt Nam, and Li n struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. H was taken in by Li n's sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt, going to school and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. H 's twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Việt Nam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.
But when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Việt Nam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls' experiences to life on the page, told from their own perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, intercountry and transracial adoption, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.
For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming of age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.
Synopsis
Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki's deeply reported, intimate story of twin sisters--born in Vietnam and raised on opposite sides of the world--whose discovery of one another's existence upends common conceptions of adoption, family, and identity.
The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam in 1998. Their birth mother couldn't afford to care for them, so one sister, Ha, was adopted by her biological aunt and her partner in rural Vietnam. Ha grew up walking to the local school, helping her moms take care of their chickens, and cooking outside over a firepit. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Ha's twin, once called Loan, was adopted by a wealthy white family, who renamed her Isabella, in a predominantly white suburb of Chicago. She attended private Catholic schools, played soccer, and started preparing for college.
When Isabella's mother Keely Solimene learned that Isabella had a twin sister, likely still in Vietnam, she turned all of their lives upside down to find Ha and reunite the girls. Hayasaki brilliantly pieces together each family member's perspective, painting a picture of the girls' distinct childhoods, educations, and experiences of race, family, and friendship, weaving in the fascinating, and often dark, history of transnational and transracial adoption in America, twin genetics and epigenetics studies, and the never-ending nature v. nurture debate among scientists and psychologists.
Somewhere Sisters illuminates and grapples with pressing issues within the American and intercountry adoption systems today, but it is fundamentally a moving portrait of sisterhood and the family bonds that shape us, perhaps more than social scientists or any research method can begin to untangle.
Synopsis
Identical twins Isabella and H were born in Vietnam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other's existence, until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds.
The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998, where their mother struggled to care for them. H was taken in by their biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village, going to school, and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. H 's twin sister, Loan, spent time in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American family adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.
But when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of Isabella's biological twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members and tells the girls' incredible story from their perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, the nature versus nurture debate, and intercountry and transracial adoption, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.
For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming-of-age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.
Synopsis
"Stirring and unforgettable--a breathtaking adoption saga like no other." --Robert Kolker
An incredible, deeply reported story of identical twins Isabella and H , born in Vi t Nam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other's existence until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds.
It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Việt Nam, and Li n struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. H was taken in by Li n's sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt, going to school and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. H 's twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Việt Nam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.
But when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Việt Nam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls' experiences to life on the page, told from their own perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, intercountry and transracial adoption, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.
For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming of age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.