Like many adoptees of her generation, Janet Sherlund was born as the offspring of teenage parents. Her mother was forced to have her baby in secrecy. Sherlund would come to learn that her mother was unusual for her time. Not only did she not tell the father she was pregnant, she wanted nothing to do with her baby and never even looked at her newborn. All she had to go on when she began her search was a false narrative written about her biological parents by the adoption agency. In her memoir, she paints a vivid portrait of the detachment and longing of an adopted child and the lifelong quest to find her biological mother. It’s an unflinching examination of the grief and trauma caused by this primal separation and the dogged determination it takes to face the forces of opposition—both internal and external—to finally achieve answers. She has served on nonprofit boards in education, health and the cultural arts.