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The poignant, "powerful" ("The Boston Globe") look at how to
appreciate life from an extraordinary professor who teaches about
death: "Poetic passages and assorted revelations you'll likely not
forget" ("Chicago Tribune").
Why does a college course on death have a three-year waiting list?
When nurse Norma Bowe decided to teach a course on death at a
college in New Jersey, she never expected it to be popular. But
year after year students crowd into her classroom, and the reason
is clear: Norma's "death class" is really about how to make the
most of what poet Mary Oliver famously called our "one wild and
precious life."
Under the guise of discussions about last wills and last breaths
and visits to cemeteries and crematoriums, Norma teaches her
students to find grace in one another. In "The Death Class,"
award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki followed Norma for more
than four years, showing how she steers four extraordinary students
from their tormented families and neighborhoods toward happiness:
she rescues one young woman from her suicidal mother, helps a young
man manage his schizophrenic brother, and inspires another to leave
his gang life behind. Through this unorthodox class on death, Norma
helps kids who are barely hanging on to understand not only the
value of their own lives, but also the secret of fulfillment: to
throw yourself into helping others.
Hayasaki's expert reporting and literary prose bring Norma's wisdom
out of the classroom, transforming it into an inspiring lesson for
all. In the end, Norma's very own life--and how she lives it--is
the lecture that sticks. "Readers will come away struck by Bowe's
compassion--and by the unexpectedly life-affirming messages of
courage that spring from her students' harrowing experiences"
("Entertainment Weekly").
The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998, where their
mother struggled to care for them. Ha was taken in by their
biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village, going to school,
and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic
electricity and frequent monsoons. Ha's twin sister, Loan, spent
time in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American family
adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the
suburbs of Chicago, with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also
adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly
white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college. But
when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of Isabella's biological
twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever.
Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of
hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members
and tells the girls' incredible story from their perspectives,
challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a
child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences
with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies,
the nature versus nurture debate, and intercountry and transracial
adoption, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation
surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees. For readers
of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a
richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming-of-age, told
through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the
meaning of family for themselves.
"Stirring and unforgettable" -Robert Kolker, New York
Times-bestselling author of Hidden Valley Road and Lost
GirlsIdentical twins Isabella and HÃ were born in Vietnam and
raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about
the other's existence, until they were reunited as teenagers,
against all odds. The twins were born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in
1998, where their mother struggled to care for them. HÃ was
taken in by their biological aunt, and grew up in a rural village,
going to school, and playing outside with the neighbors. They had
sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. HÃ 's twin sister,
Loan, spent time in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American
family adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in
the suburbs of Chicago, with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also
adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly
white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college. But
when Isabella's adoptive mother learned of Isabella's biological
twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever.
Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of
hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members
and tells the girls' incredible story from their perspectives,
challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a
child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters' experiences
with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies,
the nature versus nurture debate, and intercountry and transracial
adoption, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation
surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees. For readers
of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a
richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming-of-age, told
through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the
meaning of family for themselves.
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