| Hard to Place is a memoir about a family. Loss is the catalyst
that sets all the action of the book in motion ---but this is not a
book about loss. It is a narrative that weaves together the lives of
seven people ---five original members of a family and the two
"hard to place" adopted children who eventually became part of
it. It braids together themes of risk, conflict, crisis, spirituality,
transcendence, and the many manifestations of love. As the
adopted boys move into adulthood, the whole family joins in
their quest to uncover and confront painful secrets about the
past. After an almost miraculous convergence of events, exciting
as a mystery story, the family is almost torn apart by what is discovered.
Weaving these strands together is the mother and narrator, whose personal odyssey of faith and doubt climaxes in conflicted emotions. The title, Hard to Place reverberates within the many layers of this story about ordinary people, human experience, and the triumph of will over circumstance. |
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