Immediate Family
- Author Ashley Nelson Levy
- Narrator Sarah Beth Goer
- Publisher Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date 2 October 2021
- Run Time 5 hours and 49 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Fiction: general and literary.
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What to expect
A tender and fierce debut novel that explores the bond between two siblings—one the biological child and one adopted from an orphanage in Thailand
It is the day of her brother’s wedding and our narrator is still struggling with her wedding toast. Despite a recent fracture between them, Danny has asked her to give a speech, and she doesn’t know where to begin, how to put words to their kind of love. She was nine years old when she traveled with her parents to Thailand to meet her brother, age three. They grew up together like any other siblings, and shared a bucolic childhood in Northern California. Yet when she holds their story up to the light, it refracts in ways she doesn’t expect.
What follows is a heartfelt letter addressed to Danny and an attempt at a full accounting of their years growing up, invoking everything from the classic Victorian adoption plot to childless women in literature to documents from Danny’s case file. It’s also a confession of sorts to the parts of her life that she has kept from him, including her own struggle with infertility. And as the hours until the wedding wane, she uncovers the words that can’t and won’t be said aloud.
In Immediate Family, Ashley Nelson Levy explores the enduring bond between two siblings and the complexities of motherhood, infertility, race, and the many definitions of family.
Critics Review
“Honestly explore[s] the complexities of adoption in modern America.”
“Feels almost memoir-like in its realness.”
“[A] provocative snapshot of a family and the complicated, imperfect love that binds one member of it to another.”
“A beautifully raw ode to the bond between siblings.”
“Powerful vignettes…blend with musings about the history of transracial adoption, Victorian literature, and famous adoptees.”
“Levy captures elusive ideas and intense emotions about transracial adoption and infertility.”
“[An] unsparing and absorbing family portrait.”
“Probes the fissures and hidden places of familial love…and in so doing gets to the heart of love itself.”
“Asks urgent questions about belonging, the definition of family, and the horizons of love.”
“Immediate Family is about the improbable relentlessness of love. It refuses tidy conclusions, and yet by the time I turned the last page, this book that had undone me had also left me magnificently whole.”
| Author | Ashley Nelson Levy |
|---|---|
| Narrator | Sarah Beth Goer |
| Duration | 5 hours and 49 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781665092807 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Blackstone Publishing |
| Genre | Fiction: general and literary |
| Availability | US |
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