
Mamalita
An Adoption Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Jessica O'Dwyer
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By:
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Jessica O'Dwyer
About this listen
Named Best Memoir by the San Diego Book Awards, Top Five Books of the Year by Adoptive Families Magazine Awards for Memoir from the National League of American Pen Women.
This gripping memoir details a California woman's quest to adopt a baby girl from Guatemala in the face of overwhelming adversity. At only 32 years old, Jessica O'Dwyer experiences early menopause, seemingly ending her chances of becoming a mother. Years later, married but childless, she comes across a photo of a two-month-old girl on a Guatemalan adoption website and feels an instant connection. When the process drags on for more than a year, Jessica quits her job at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and moves to Antigua, Guatemala, to finish the adoption herself. Mamalita is part adventure story and part armchair travel to Central America, wrapped in the fierceness of a mother's quest to bring her baby home. At turns harrowing, heartbreaking, and inspiring, it's a classic story of the triumph of a mother's love over almost insurmountable odds. Perfect for book clubs!
©2010 Jessica O'Dwyer (P)2022 Jessica O'DwyerListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A scathing critique on a foreign adoption system and the harrowing account of one woman's attempt to fight it." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Kafka-esque. Important and timely." (Shelf Awareness)
"Harrowing and moving. Deftly handled." (Publishers Weekly)