The Adoption

4.00 out of 5 (1 ratings)

In stock
Usually despatched within 24 hours
Free delivery to a local independent bookshop

Format:: Hardback
Pages:: 400
Publisher:: Ebury Press
Publication Date:: 21 June 2012
Category:: Modern & Contemporary
ISBN:: 9780091949273

Description

'I was fourteen when my Mother said that she needed to speak to me...And then she told me - just like that. I was adopted. And what I felt was not shock or grief but the most enormous sense of relief'. Growing up as the only child of strict, God-fearing parents, Lucilla has always felt her difference. But it is not till adulthood that she discovers the real reasons behind her adopted mother's often times violent indifference. As for Harriet, she would have readily sent her longed for baby back if she could, having discovered she falls all too short of her expectations. And then there is Bethan, a young girl in 1940s Wales, whose only mistake is falling in love with the wrong man...

Reader Reviews

Showing 1-1 out of 1 reviews.

I have mixed thoughts about this one.It gripped me from start to finish and the writing is excellent. The story revolves around the lives of 3 women who are all linked through "The Adoption." Bethan lives on a farm in Wales where German POWs have been assigned to help her father. She falls in love with one of them and becomes pregnant.....not easy at the best of times in the late 1940s, but made much worse by the father's nationality. Bethan is forced to give her baby girl away..there are no ther words to describe it. The adoptive parents are very strict, particularly Harriet the adoptive mother. Lucilla...the baby....does not grow in to the "right sort" of girl for Harriet's liking. Not for Lucilla the joy of embroidery, baking and homemaking. Lucilla is a tomboy through and through and very rebellious. Her love of art could have given her a wonderful life, but even that is denied her. She isn't told of her adoption until she is 14 years old, and not in the most sensitive of manners.Lucilla eventually finds happiness with her husband Henry and their 2 children, but she wants to trace her birth mother as many would in her situation. All the way through the novel, we are told that Bethan has ached for her first born child, and her subsequent second daughter...her echo baby... has been denied her love and affection because of this obsession. Yet, when she is approached by the adoption services acting on Lucilla's behalf, she refuses to have anything to do with Lucilla and writes what can only be described as a cruel letter telling her as much. Now this was where I lost patience. Why this sudden turn of events? We are not told. I so wanted this reunion and, yes, I can see that not everything is rose tinted in such a difficult and sensitive situation, but this comes as a huge shock to the reader who has come to know Bethan so well. Perhaps the author was trying not to sugar coat matters and didn't want a "neat, chocolate box" ending. Yes, there is a glimmer of hope at the end, but I wanted more.Having read Anne Berry's first two novels, I was looking forward to this one, and I can not fault her writing style. There were differences of opinions on "The Water Children", her second novel, and I think the same will be true of this one. I wish her success and still admire her for her work.This book was made available to me, prior to publication, for an honest review.

4.00 out of 5

teresa1953

Reviews provided by Librarything.