Seeking a child and finding yourself.

When her husband badgers her to start a family, successful engineer Ruth Tuttle is compelled to leave Chicago and return to her small hometown — to find the child she was forced to give up when she was a teenager.

Seeing her childhood home through adult eyes, she is suddenly aware of the sacrifices her family made to give her the opportunity to leave behind this town, with its deep racial prejudice. Also, she gains a deeper understanding of how the stigma of being an unwed mother would have affected not only her but her family and child.

Johnson deftly handles the theme of racial prejudice without pontificating or overpowering the elements of maternal love and familial bonds. A touching and beautifully poignant story about family and making peace with the past.

If this title intrigues you, check out the following:

Must I Go by Yiyun Li

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida

Click here for my Audiofile Magazine review on Shayna Small’s wonderful rendition in the audio version.