Famous Adopted People

Adoptees Lisa and Mindy are best friends whose childhood hobby of collecting the biographies of famous adopted people has continued into adulthood, even as their lives take different paths. Now in their late twenties, Mindy convinces Lisa to meet in South Korea to search for their birth mothers. But Lisa isn't in a good place. She's been teaching English in Japan and the situation there--thanks mostly to her spontaneous, hard-partying ways--has become problematic. After a possible friendship-ending fight with Mindy in Seoul, and with a return to Japan no longer advisable, Lisa is running out of options. Refusing to come to terms with her life, she embarks on a drinking binge with Harrison, the almost supernaturally handsome fixer from the Motherfinder's agency. Things quickly go from drunken to surreal; and Lisa wakes up to find herself trapped inside a palatial mountain compound, the captive of a glamorous, surgically-enhanced blonde named Honey. Honey's world is populated by a cast of international misfits--an Australian personal assistant, a Russian doctor, a Japanese chef among them--all loitering in extravagant imprisonment. Forced to come to terms with why she is there, Lisa must also confront Honey's true identity, and the fact that all of this can only be happening in one place: North Korea. Debut novelist Alice Stephens combines dark humor and a keen wit to examine the profound implications of not knowing where you come from; and how our perceptions of an unknown world actually reflect deeper truths about our own.

Stephens' darkly comic, sharply irreverent, undeniably wise 'Great Adoption Novel' is an unexpectedly timely, not-to-be-missed, epic wild ride. --Booklist, *Starred Review*
Lisa Pearl is an American teaching English in Japan and the situation there--thanks mostly to her spontaneous, hard-partying ways--has become problematic. Now she's in Seoul, South Korea, with her childhood best-friend Mindy. The young women share a special bond: they are both Korean-born adoptees into white American families. Mindy is in Seoul to track down her birth mom, and wants Lisa to do the same. Trouble is, Lisa isn't convinced she needs to know about her past, much less meet her biological mother.
She'd much rather spend time with Harrison, an almost supernaturally handsome local who works for the MotherFinder's agency. When Lisa wakes up inside a palatial mountain compound, the captive of a glamorous, surgically-enhanced blonde named Honey, she soon realizes she is going to learn about her past whether she likes it or not. What happens next only could in one place: North Korea.