Imagine that you've always wanted a baby. What would you do if you saw one left alone in a store?
This is just what happened to Lucy in WHAT WAS MINE. For several years, she and her husband, Warren, have tried to have a baby but have not been able to conceive. She goes through life wanting nothing more than to have a child of her own. Warren has had enough, and he leaves Lucy.
One day, while shopping in IKEA, Lucy comes upon a baby girl left alone in a stroller. Lucy looks around but doesn't see anyone with her. Marylyn is the woman who left the baby for a second to take a call from work. What a shock when she discovers her baby gone. All Lucy wanted to do was take the baby outside because it was very cold in the store and the baby was not in the best outfit.
Forward to years later. Marylyn has never given up hope her daughter would be found. During this time, Marylyn's husband left her, and she is now married again with three children. That has not stopped her from wanting her first child back.
Lucy has given Mia everything a child could want, but in some surprising turns of event, Mia finds out she was stolen from her natural parents. Will Mia and her real mom finally get to reunited? What will happen to the relationship between Mia and Lucy?
What a great storyline. Helen Klein Ross writes a story which you might think is unbelievable but I'm sure it could be true. While I found myself cheering for Lucy, I also felt bad for Marylyn. And then there's Mia. I can't even imagine what this would be like for all involved. Helen Klein Ross writes with such emotions from all sides. WHAT WAS MINE is sad in parts, happy in others.
Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling
tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent
novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a
woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstoreβand gets away with
it for twenty-one years.
Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does
something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a
baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own.
Itβs a secret she manages to keep for over two decadesβfrom
her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family,
coworkers, and friends.
When Lucyβs now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating
truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and
anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who
raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a
tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to
avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that
alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of
the very meaning of motherhood.
Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New
Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience
told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Miaβs
birth mother, and others intimately involved in the
kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood
and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects
of a single, irrevocable moment.
No excerpt available.
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