Title: I Must Have Wandered: An Adopted Air Force Daughter Recalls
Author: Mary Ellen Gambutti
Genre: Memoir, Adoption
Book Blurb:
I Must Have Wandered is a rich hybrid collage of lyrical prose, correspondence, images, and fragments that traces a girl's relinquishment at birth in 1951 South Carolina and her adoption by an Air Force couple, her coming of age in the turbulent '60s, and the quest for identity through knowledge of her birth heritage. It is a story of adoptee loss and discovery amid the separations and transience of military family life, a culture of secrecy, and the barrier of sealed birth record laws to a seeker's truth.
Excerpt:
Out of the Blue, a Poem in Prose
What did Virgo’s stars portend? A prophecy of place and time, a raison d’être. On the designated date, September 21, the cusp of Libra the Just, she was pushed into the autumnal equinox. Formed in a fog like a nebula. Delivered in sorrow on fall’s first day. Early autumn brought blue asters, sweaters, schooldays, and storms.
The mother and child—placed together by unvirtuous accident—were separated in a single, swift scoop of happenstance. All concerned should be protected. Our union of chance was brought asunder by circumstance. Another postwar charity case gave me life and then left me in tears. Left me in tears. In a swirl of ambiguity and abstraction, we were severed and left to wonder. The facts of her birth were muddled, muddied by secrets and lies, her name erased, the records sealed.
Out of the wild blue yonder, blue like a September sky, like a sapphire birthstone, she belonged to an Air Force couple.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
My book is a unique creative non-fiction hybrid. More than an adoption search memoir, it uses letters, fragments, and images to tell the true story of adoption, loss, trauma, and discovery.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $15 Amazon US or Amazon Canada gift card
Open Internationally. You must have an active Amazon US or CA account to win. Runs September 20 – September 28, 2022. Winner will be drawn on September 29, 2022.
Author Biography:
Mary Ellen Gambutti's personal essays are published in these and many other literary magazines: Borrowed Solace, Spillwords, BookEnds Review, mac(ro)mic, Portland Metrozine, True Stories Well Told, Visible, and Love What Matters. She and her husband live in Lewes, DE with their senior Chihuahua, Max.
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