In 1942, Elizabeth Bynum Sanders was a young woman who left home under false pretenses and traveled to Our Lady of Victory, a home for unwed mothers in upstate New York. Shortly after surrendering her daughter for adoption, she returned to her life in Johnston County, North Carolina. She never married and never had another child of her own.
Through writing that is both evocative and straight-forward, nuanced and poetic the author carries us into a world of reunion that is both celebration and challenge. Through story, it brings us into the complexity of the adoption world.
The Names of My Mothers is a moving and powerful memoir that tells of the profound need for connection. It is a story about identity, the hunger one feels for a sense of belonging, and the ineffable significance of blood.
