Woman of Interest: A Memoir

Novelist O’Neill (Quotients) delivers a riveting account of her search for her birth mother. Fresh off a breakup in 2020, a 33-year-old O’Neill, who was raised by adoptive parents in New England, became newly curious about her origins. She entrusted a private investigator with what limited information she had about her birth mother, but after a promising start, the investigator ghosted her, leaving behind a tangle of loose ends. Determined to see the inquiry through, O’Neill used a DNA database to locate a blood relative, who then virtually introduced her to her mother’s siblings in South Korea. Though Covid-19 cases were peaking at the time, O’Neill traveled to Korea on the advice of these relatives, who promised that they’d introduce her to her mother. While O’Neill completed a sleepless 10-day quarantine, she reflected on how her search was related to her own doubts and fears about becoming a mother. The narrative culminates with O’Neill and her mother finally meeting at a tense dinner party, an experience that left O’Neill with more questions than answers about the circumstances that led to her adoption. In cool, noir-tinted prose shot through with wit and compassion, O’Neill presents her inquiry as a sort of metaphysical detective story. Readers will be enthralled. (June)