Customer Reviews

My Fathers' Daughter: A Story of Family and Belonging

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great read! Very insightful information about an african adult adoptee growing up in a predominantly white family and area. Very interesting to hear her inner thoughts and feelings as she returned to the country she was born in, and to meet with people who are her blood relatives. I highly recommend this book.

"I was born a poor black child." That line always made me laugh when I heard Steve Martin say it on his LP "Let's Get Small". (I'll explain what an LP is later, kids, if you care.) He was such a WASPy guy (especially, for some odd reason, with his prematurely white hair.)
But I would think the line would some incongruous coming from the lips of Hannah Pool as well. Sure, she is black. But she is also British with the accompanying accent and she is a 30ish year old columnist for The Guardian. Her position of privilege makes the "poor" part of the phrase seem unlikely.
But when was born to a poor family (by our standards) in the
African nation of Eritrea. She was put in an orphanage and it was there that a British academic and his American wife adopted her. Her adopted parents were told that the girl they named Hannah was an orphan. But decades later, Hannah Pool received a letter from a brother in Eritrea. It was then she discovered she
was not an orphan. Though her mother had died in child birth, her father was still alive and anxious to see her again.
The book is the story of Pool's fascinating journey to meet and get to know the family she never knew she had.
Pool's skills as a journalist serve the story well as a Travel Log, introducing the reader to this small African nation with great beauty but that still suffers from a history of colonialism, poverty and war. She brings an interesting perspective on the nation's customs, a liberated woman in a place where women are expected to be demure and marriages are usually still arranged.
But the most interesting dynamic in the book is her interaction with her new found family. One of the great questions of her life is `Why was she put in an orphanage?' As she learns parts of the answer to that question, she finds herself jealous of those who were able to stay with their father. But she realizes that her brothers and sisters may well be jealous of the advantages
she has as growing up with the riches of the Western world.
Pool, an atheist, is uncomfortable with the constant praise and thanksgiving her family make to God for their reunion with her. She probably wouldn't be thrilled when I say that her book reminds of the longing every person that has ever lived has felt without a relationship with the Living God.
Romans 8:23 says, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." We all feel the need for more, for a parent that not only accepts us, but can fully understand us. God not only wants to adopt us, make us His own, but His knowledge of us is even more complete than any Earthly parent (by blood or law.)

I loved this book! I'm not sure what I was expecting...maybe I had low expectations?...but it was an engaging, entertaining and informative read. We are in the process of adopting a daughter from Ethiopia. I felt like I could have been reading my daughter's journal 30 years from now. I highly recommend it!

I am a "birth" mother who has been affected by adoption and reunite. I married the father two years after relinquishing my rights to my first born son and then later had two more kids together. I loved how real Hannah Pool was in retelling her story. She explanned in such great detail the emotions and feelings that come over you when you are reunited with your lost one through adoption. These feeling ARE real, feelings that I too didn't know exist until going through them myself. We can't change what has happened...Thank you Hannah for sharing your story. Hearing the adoptees feelings so candid, validated to me how much my first born son DOES truly love me.
Keri Stone

though I think the telling has merit. If you are the kind of person who enjoys knowing every little thought and action that goes with the story this book will really appeal to you. And, perhaps, if the reader has a similiar experience it may actually be a compelling read.