THE BOOK: Famous Adopted People
PUBLISHED IN: 2018
THE AUTHOR: Alice Stephens
THE EDITOR: Chris Heiser
THE PUBLISHER: Unnamed Press is an outstanding independent publisher based in Los Angeles that tends toward books that trade publishers regard as too weird.
SUMMARY: 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 impulsive, 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 extraordinarily handsome fixer from MotherFinder’s, the agency that helps adoptees find their birth parents. Things quickly go from drunken to surreal; and Lisa wakes up to find herself in the strangest and cruelest place on earth: North Korea.
Trapped inside a palatial mountain compound, Lisa is held captive by a glamorous, surgically-enhanced blonde named Honey. Honey’s world is populated by a cast of international misfits―a South African personal assistant, a Russian doctor, a Japanese chef, two American defectors, and others―all loitering in extravagant imprisonment. Forced to come to terms with why she is there, Lisa must also confront Honey’s true identity, while finding her own among the wreckage of her life.
With dark humor and a keen wit, Famous Adopted People examines 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.
THE BACK STORY: I wrote Famous Adopted People to counter the recent trend in publishing that uses adoption as a vehicle for sickly sweet tales of fate and destiny. These stories portray the adoptee as the object and not the subject of the story, a character who is not in charge of her own life but must be rescued by someone. These one-sided depictions do real damage to adoptees and I wanted to write a novel that more honestly portrayed the complexities of being adopted. There are not many novels about adoption written by adoptees, and I thought the world sorely needed an #ownvoices adoption novel.
WHY THIS TITLE?: Foremost because it’s a great title! Also, it fits in with a theme that runs through the book. Throughout Lisa and Mindy’s friendship, they keep a list of famous adopted people. When I was growing up, adoption was not as common as it is now, nor as open. I didn’t meet my first adopted person until I was in 8th grade, and my first Korean adoptee until I was in my twenties. It was lonely, and I was always on the lookout for other adoptees in the news. There weren’t many, and some of them, like Melissa Gilbert and Dave Thomas, may be obscure to today’s reader. Each chapter begins with a quote from or about a famous adopted person to illustrate the many ways adoptees view adoption.
WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO READ IT? It’s well written, laugh out loud funny, a gripping read, and something out of the ordinary. It offers a fresh and honest perspective on the adoptee experience. It’s not for readers who don’t like to be surprised or challenged, and there is one scene in particular that makes people squeamish.
REVIEW COMMENTS: “Stephens’ darkly comic, sharply irreverent, undeniably wise “Great Adoption Novel” is an unexpectedly timely, not-to-be-missed, epic wild ride.” Starred review from ALA Booklist.
“The increasing tension and outlandishness of Stephens’ work lends itself to a poignant take on the topic of family.” Kirkus review
“Peppered with moments of political satire and heartfelt introspection, Stephens’s novel also offers a fun-house depiction of the absurdities and horrors of the surveillance state. This is an excellent debut.” Publishers Weekly review
AUTHOR PROFILE: Born in South Korea to a Korean mother and an American father, I became Alice Stephens when I was adopted into a white American family at nine months old. That first international plane ride from Korea to the US foretold a life of exploration and travel, and I have lived, worked, and studied on four continents, starting at four years old when my family moved to Botswana where we lived for six years. A voracious reader, I decided to become a writer when I was a teenager and it only took me 30 years to achieve my goal! On the way, I tried to work as much as I could with books and words, and have been an English teacher abroad, an editorial assistant at an academic publisher, a book profile editor at a library bookselling company, a copy editor, and worked in international travel. Along with a love of travel, I love international cuisines, the spicier the better, and I have an extreme fondness for the noodle in all its glorious manifestations. A swimmer, I’m much more graceful in the water than I am on land. A resident of the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, and mother of two sons, I live in an empty nest with my husband.
AUTHOR COMMENTS: I wrote this book for everyone, but especially for adoptees. As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to counter the one-sided narratives about adoption that proliferate in our society. Growing up, I had no literature in which I could recognize myself; there was no honest depiction of the arduous journey that many adoptees must undertake to find our own true selves. I am also hoping that people who love adoptees, are thinking about adoption, or want to learn more about the adoptee experience will read the book to get a better idea of the complexities of adoption and the challenges adoptees face in establishing an identity, especially for transracial adoptees. This is not a simple, black-and-white tale, and my hope is that the reader will continue to think about the issues I raise long after finishing the novel.
SAMPLE CHAPTER: https://www.amazon.com/Famous-Adopted-People-Alice-Stephens/dp/1944700749/
LOCAL OUTLETS: Last I checked it was in stock at Politics & Prose (Connecticut Avenue branch) and Loyalty Bookstore (Silver Spring branch). As a fierce proponent of independent bookstores, I’d like to remind readers they can order any book directly through most local bookstores even if they don’t carry the title in their store.
WHERE ELSE TO BUY IT: Amazon, Barnes & noble, etc., the Unnamed Press website, Indiebound or Bookshop
PRICE: ppbk: $18.99, ebook $10
CONTACT THE AUTHOR:
https://www.famousadoptedpeople.com/
Twitter: @AliceKSStephens
FB: @AliceStephensAuthor
IG: @AliceStephensBooks
Snowflakes in a Blizzard 