Review: The Red Thread by Ann Hood

February 11, 2010 By 4 Comments
The Red Thread: A Novel
Publication Date:  May 3, 2010
Publisher:  W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Genre:  Women’s Fiction; Contemporary Fiction
ARC borrowed from Lori (thank you!)
ISBN:  978-0-393-07020-0
304 pages

My Rating:  5+ stars

2010 Reading Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge

Synopsis:
From the best-selling author of The Knitting Circle, a mother’s powerful journey from loss to love. “In China there is a belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. Who is at the end of your red thread?”
After losing her infant daughter in a freak accident, Maya Lange opens The Red Thread, an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families. Maya finds some comfort in her work, until a group of six couples share their personal stories of their desire for a child. Their painful and courageous journey toward adoption forces her to confront the lost daughter of her past. Brilliantly braiding together the stories of Chinese birth mothers who give up their daughters, Ann Hood writes a moving and beautifully told novel of fate and the red thread that binds these characters’ lives. Heartrending and wise, The Red Thread is a stirring portrait of unforgettable love and yearning for a baby.
My Thoughts:  

“In China there is a belief that people who are destined to be together are connected by an invisible red thread. Who is at the end of your red thread?”
The Red Thread is a wonderfully written novel chronicling the lives of five couples, along with the adoption agency director, as they go through the process of adopting a baby girl from China. We see their high points…and low points; their excitement…and their jitters. Fraught with emotion, Ann Hood puts a spell on the reader and she seamlessly moves us through the families’ stories, from their initial meeting, to the home study, to the paperwork, to the months and months of waiting to hear from the Chinese government, and finally to the trip to China to pick up the babies. Through each section of the story, we get the adoption director, Maya’s, point of view, as well as the perspective of each family as they struggle with the emotional upheaval that the process brings onto them.
Maya comes with her own set of demons and it is agonizing to read her inner turmoil and how she is haunted by a freak accident that resulted in the death of her infant daughter.  It destroyed her and it destroyed her marriage.  Through this book, Maya does begin to heal, but she is very tentative and does not want to get emotionally involved with anyone, for fear of losing them, too.  I enjoyed reading about Maya’s journey and how through her work as an adoption agency director, she is able to begin the healing process.

One of the best parts of the book are the stories of the Chinese mothers and fathers who are forced to give up their baby girls. China has very strict laws about having one child, with the male child being the most desirable. If a family has a daughter first, they are allowed to try for a son, but if a second girl is born, there are strict punishments on those families. Thus, many women are forced to give up their little girls – leaving them in parks, on police station steps, or at orphanage doors – in order to avoid punishment. It is utterly heartbreaking and I cannot imagine the pain that these families must endure, hoping that their children end up in good homes. I truly loved reading their stories and it added so much depth to the novel.

I love the magical theory of the “red thread”, that people are destined to be together. I believe in fate and destiny and I loved reading about the invisible “red thread” that brought the American families and their abandoned Chinese daughters together. It truly was pure magic.

I thoroughly loved this book and I would highly recommend it to my readers. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would – that’s how much I loved it. Put it on your wish list now and come back here after you read it and let me know what you thought!

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Comments

  1. Diane says:
    February 12, 2010 at 3:26 am

    OMG…I love Ann Hood. This is the first review I've read on her new book; it sounds so so good; thanks for posting about it!

    Reply
  2. Jennifer (Crazy-for- says:
    February 12, 2010 at 3:47 am

    Diane – it is really good!! This is the first book I've read by Ann Hood and I am so excited to find the rest of her work! She is amazing!!

    Reply
  3. Jennifer (Crazy-for-Books) says:
    February 12, 2010 at 3:47 am

    Diane – it is really good!! This is the first book I've read by Ann Hood and I am so excited to find the rest of her work! She is amazing!!

    Reply
  4. Deb says:
    February 12, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    Wow! This sounds like an amazing storing. I'm going to have to add it to my amazon list so I remember to buy it when it's release.Thanks for the wonderful review.

    Reply

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