Unraveling Bloodlines: How "Relative Strangers" Redefines Family and Belonging
A diary is also a place for secrets, and the adoption and conception process has been — especially in years past — as secretive as nuclear codes (It is less so today thanks to the advocacy of the adoption, donor-conceived, and NPE (not parent expected) communities, and the ubiquity of DNA test kits.) Inside the anthology are numerous heartrending passages about being lied to and gaslit by adoptive and biological parents and relatives. A child’s trust is a precious and delicate gift. The child who still lives inside the contributors to Relative Strangers have had their trust betrayed. And yet, even a betrayal is not enough to break the bond they feel to the parents who raised them, nor squelch the desire to search out those who chose not to. The work is in reconciling the two disparate worlds of trust and betrayal. Again, we rely on narratives and fantasies to fill the gap. What is true? The double entendre title of the anthology and the writers within beg the question.
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