Other People's Children

An “engrossing debut” novel (Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told ) about a couple whose dreams of adoption push them to do the unthinkable when their baby’s birth family steps into the picture.

What makes a family?

Gail and Jon Durbin moved to the Chicago suburbs as soon as Gail got pregnant. But then she miscarried—once, twice, three times. Determined to expand their family, the Durbins turn to adoption. When several adoptions fall through, Gail’s desire for a child overwhelms her.

Carli is a pregnant teenager from a blue-collar town nearby, dreaming of going to college and getting out of her mother’s home. When she makes the gut-wrenching decision to give her baby up for adoption, she chooses the Durbins. But Carli’s mother, Marla, has other plans for her grandbaby.

In Other People’s Children, three mothers make excruciating choices to protect their families and their dreams—choices that put them at decided odds against one another. You will root for each one of them and wonder just how far you’d go in the same situation. This “heartbreakingly dark, suspenseful exploration” (Cara Wall, bestselling author of The Dearly Beloved) of love and family is a heart-pounding page-turner you’ll find impossible to put down.