num_pages: 256
description: Part memoir part speculative fiction The Girl I Am Was and Never Will Be explores the often surreal experience of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee.Dream Country author Shannon Gibney returns with The Girl I Am Was and Never Will Be a book woven from her true story of growing up as a mixed-Black transracial adoptee and fictional story of Erin Powers the name Shannon was given at birth a child raised by a white closeted lesbian. At its core the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds that story with reproductions of her own adoption documents letters family photographs interviews medical records and brief essays on the surreal absurdities of the adoptee experience.The end result is a remarkable portrait of an American experience rarely depicted in any form.
language: English
title: The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers