By Terry Hong
The real-life stories that first inspired The Leavers involved the children of these immigrant women adopted into mostly white, middle-class American families—and courts were saying that this was a “better fit” for the children, even if their mothers wanted to keep them. Continue reading
I read a beautiful and haunting anecdote in a guidebook to Rajasthan: it’s possible for children to reach the age of five without ever seeing rain, and therefore the ceilings and walls of royal children’s bedrooms were sometimes painted with cloud designs so that when it did finally rain, they would not be afraid. I wrote this image down, and everything else started spilling out. Continue reading
