Description

“What does it mean to lose your roots – within your culture and family – and what happens when you find them? Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parent had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life, that forever feeling slightly out of place was her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as Nicole grew up–facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and as a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from–she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.

With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong.”

Staff Member Review

All You Can Ever Know is a bestseller for a reason. A beautifully written memoir by transracial adoptee Nicole Chung, she shares her journey in connecting with her birth family as an adult while also experiencing her first pregnancy. Chung addresses several aspects of her life that are relevant topics discussed in the world of transracial domestic adoption today. She expresses her struggles and issues with belonging she has as an Asian child with white parents, her overall grief and inward complications with her identity as an adoptee, and her feelings about her birth family. I would greatly recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are always trying to expand their knowledge on the complexities of adoption and are actively searching to hear the voices of any adoptee’s lived experience. As an adoptive sibling, I felt fortunate to read this book to gain insight and understanding into the views some adoptees express about their personal narratives and histories.

 

Author: Nicole Chung
ISBN: 978-1-936787-97-5
Count: 1