THE GIRL I AM, WAS, AND NEVER WILL BE By: Shannon Gibney
Dutton Books for Young Readers
January 2024
On Sale: January 9, 2024
256 pages ISBN: 0593112016 EAN: 9780593112014 Kindle: B09Y2RYK63 Trade Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
Part memoir, part speculative fiction, this novel explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee.
Dream Country author Shannon Gibney returns with a new book woven from her true story of growing up as the adopted Black daughter of white parents and the fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Shannon was given at birth by the white woman who gave her up for adoption.
At its core, the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds that story with reproductions of her own adoption documents, letters, family photographs, interviews, medical records, and brief essays on the surreal absurdities of the adoptee experience.
The end result is a remarkable portrait of an American experience rarely depicted in any form.
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