I enjoyed Ann Hood's novel about families adopting babies from China. It was a unique perspective, the Chinese families forced to give up their baby daughters, the anxiety in couples adopting, and loss leading to new beginnings. An interesting perspective. ( )

The Red Thread in Ann Hood's novel title refers to a Chinese saying that an invisible red thread links people who are destined to be connected.

The novel is about a group of American couples who hope to adopt a Chinese child, as well as the stories of how those children came to be relinquished by their mothers.

After Hood lost her own child she and her husband adopted a Chinese child. The novel was inspired by the experience.

I first read Hood when the publisher sent me her memoir Morningstar: Growing Up with Books, which I devoured in one sitting.

Hood creates amazingly realistic characters. I thought about a couple I know who went through years trying everything to get pregnant before adopting two children, one from Korea.

Maya runs an adoption agency to connect American parents with Chinese orphans. Beneath her professional and competent veneer she hides a painful past that won't allow her to move on, a guilt so deep she can't share it with her closest friends.

Chapters explore the couples who have come to her, each with their personal needs and fears, with strong or fragile relationships. Some have step-children and natural children who are disappointments. Their lives become emotional roller coasters of expectation, second thoughts, and marital stress.

Poignant stories of the Chinese children imagine mothers unwilling to give up their girl children; they are heart-breaking. China's law allowing families to have one child became relaxed to two children. It still meant that families could only afford to have one girl child.

Knitting figures into the stories; Maya knits as therapy, expectant mothers knit for their imagined children.

The Red Thread would make a wonderful book club pick.

I purchased a book at my local bookstore. ( )

This story weaves the lives of the founder of an adoption agency for China with the lives of 5 potential adoptive parents and five chinese women forced to give up their girls. With so many characters it can get a bit confusing at times, but the author does a good job of intergrating everyones stories smoothly. A nice read. ( )

This story weaves the lives of the founder of an adoption agency for China with the lives of 5 potential adoptive parents and five chinese women forced to give up their girls. With so many characters it can get a bit confusing at times, but the author does a good job of intergrating everyones stories smoothly. A nice read. ( )

Chinese mythology tells the story of the red thread, an invisible string that binds people who are destined to be together. In this book the “red thread” binds American families and the children they hope to adopt. Maya runs the “Red Thread Adoption Agency” which specializes in matching American couples to baby girls born and abandoned in China. Ms. Hood tells each couple’s story and intertwines it with the story of how and why their prospective baby came to be adoptable. Each couple has a different reason for wanting to adopt and each baby has a different story for needing “new” parents.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Although the book is fiction, it did introduce me to an issue of which I was totally unaware. I enjoyed meeting the American families with their individual tales for wanting to adopt, but I was totally enthralled with the stories of the Chinese baby girls. This book had its tear-jerking moments, but overall was a feel-good book. Admittedly, I was a little misty eyed after reading the last pages, but closed the back cover feeling totally satisfied with the ending … and for me, that’s part of reading a good book.
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