DEBUT Song for My Birth Mother is a novel about the significance of giving up a child and the aftermath of adoption. Two families experience the irrevocable loss in different ways. The birth mother lives with guilt, regret and a yearning for her firstborn. The adopted child wonders about the origin of her opera quality voice, and in adolescence she descends into a void, trying to understand the reason she was given up and wanting to know if her birth mother ever once wanted her back. The girl keeps this secret for fear of hurting her loving parents. The adoptive parents consider that their joy of adopting a baby is the birth mother's sorrow, and they mildly fear that one day the woman might come looking for her child. This novel brings the reader close to the bone of the adoption triad - the birth mother, the child given up and the adoptive parents, all of whom live with a secret that shapes their lives. Over time, their emotions change, having been transformed by life itself. The birth mother realizes that the child she gave up is a baby no more and that the grown woman might even reject her. She also considers the fallout that might occur should her three children discover that they have a half-sister, one who is on her way to fame. The adopted child wants to search for her birth family but she fears being rejected a second time. The adoptive parents become settled in their lives and they do not favor the idea of opening the door to the past and having their daughter come face to face with her birth family. The debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City is the denouement, as the future of both families stands to be changed once again.
About the Author: Lois Mathieu is a full-time fiction writer living in her native Connecticut. She grew up in a rural setting imagining the possibility of venturing out and embracing a bigger world view. Lois earned a B.A. degree from Syracuse University in New York and a Masters of English from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. As a professional writer in the corporate milieu, she made over a dozen trips to Japan and enjoyed the experience of the international setting. Lois is also a poet, a first-prize recipient of the Joseph E. Brodine Award presented to her by the Connecticut Poetry Society for her poem on the Holocaust, Counting Sheep by Night. Her early poetry and poetry reviews have been published in fine literary journals and anthologies. She is the author of The Next to Last Drink, a novel about a man struggling to get out of the trap of addiction after years of using alcohol as a remedy for anxiety.