Deeply researched, SOMEWHERE SISTERS examines transracial adoption through the story of Ha and Isabella, Vietnamese twins who were separated as babies—one adopted by a family in the United States, and one adopted by their aunt and her partner in Vietnam.

Hayasaki structures the book chronologically, following the girls as they grow up in vastly different environments, until they meet and live together as teens. Interspersed between their story are chapters examining different aspects of transracial adoption and twin studies. Isabella and Ha’s stories are told mostly in their own words, from years of interviews conducted by the author. We also follow the story of Isabella’s adopted sister Olivia, and I found all three of their voices to be compelling and unique. Hayasaki’s own perspective is very lightly felt, though I appreciated the moments where her story helped bring context to the narrative. The balance between intimate storytelling and analytical sections was perfect.

The similarities between Isabella and Ha’s feelings and experiences growing up, even as they lived thousands of miles apart, was astounding. Coupled with intriguing stories from twin studies done around the world, I found it hard to stop reading. The endless push and pull between nature and nurture in scientific debates/studies around twins, and the odd coincidences in peoples’ lives, really make you wonder about what connects us. This is a work of empathetic, curious journalism that is informative and insightful, yet will leave you with a lot to mull over. Highly recommend!

{3.5 stars}

Isabella and Olivia are adopted sisters. They were both born in Vietnam to separate families and were adopted by an American family. Their adoptive mother had biological children and decided when prompted by a neighbor to go to Vietnam to adopt a young girl. That girl, Loan, had been given up by her mother who had birthed twins, one of which was weak and needed more attention. So she gave Loan away to focus on Ha, her weaker child. She visited the orphanage and really wanted a great life for her daughter. The story tells us how Isabella ended up in the US with a different Vietnamese sister and the epic quest their adoptive mother went on to reunite them with their birth families. It also tells us how each of the girls felt about their mother's absences and the reunification as well as how they lived afterwards. We also get large chunks of the history of Vietnam and America as well as the genetics of twins and a debate of nature versus nurture.

This book was definitely a lot. So many intertwined topics are investigated to try to explain the circumstances and emotional challenges of this unusual family. I liked a lot of the pieces of this book on their own but together it was a bit frenetic and all over the place. My best friend lived this life (albeit adopted from Korea not Vietnam) so I felt like I better understood the challenges of identity and the complexities of wanting to know where you are from and yet not, the grateful attitude toward your adopted parents and yet the inherent loss of who you could have been. I also appreciated the deeper dive into the parents and their motivations for making such a heart wrenching decision. My grandmother had a similar choice in her life and we all struggled to understand it when it came to light and this story helped me empathize even more.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for the gifted copy. All opinions above are my own.

Somewhere Sisters
By Erika Hayasaki

I was intrigued by this nonfiction of story of three sisters born in Vietnam - twins separated as infants and one adopted by an American family and the third not related to the twins was also from the same orphanage and adopted by the American family as well. Hayasaki chronicles the sisters' stories and about international adoption, studies of nurture vs nature, identity and of course families in its many forms.

I enjoyed all the insights about foreign adoptee laws, study of genetics, eugenics, and touched on many sensitive topics related to racism and xenophobia. I found the writing easy to read and very interesting - great research was done and I am so impressed with the author.

Erika Hayasaki skillfully led me through a history of transracial/international adoption in the US while also chronicling the journey of the extended families, both birth- and adoptive, of three girls, two of whom were adopted by a US family and one who was adopted by her maternal aunt in Viet Nam. I felt aware at least of the issues covered here but the book gave me a much greater depth of understanding. I’m glad to have read it. Sometimes you just know a book on a fraught subject has been written by a compassionate person. This was one of those times.

This book is indeed "A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family." I expected to read about two sisters separated and raised in vastly different environments. And the author does deliver this story. Isabella and Ha face different upbringings and experiences before they are reunited. I found their story interesting and thought-provoking.
But the author also spends quite a bit of time discussing twins and adoption in general. At least half of the book offers insight into these topics based on research and is quite dry in places. Those sections include Operation Babylift and discussions on nurture versus nature.
I also struggled to feel compassion for all the characters. I'm not sure if that's my bias or the author's intention.
The book does work to reduce prejudice and misinformation. For example, women in VietNam are not easy, backward or clones who wear identical clothing. Also, it made me rethink my views on adoption and family reunification. For these reasons, I give it three stars rather than two stars.

An incredibly illuminating investigation into the realities of transnational and transracial adoptions, as told via the stories of Isabella, Ha, and Olivia—two identical twin sisters who were separated at birth in Vietnam, and the non-biological sister who was adopted with one of them into a wealthy, white American family, all eventually reunited.

I really appreciated this incredibly nuanced, journalistic approach to a sensitive topic and set of highly personal, traumatic, and emotional experiences. As you read about the sisters’ experiences and meditations on what family, sisterhood, fate, and identity mean to them, explanations of the dark history of adoption and scientific twin studies are woven in to further your understanding of the situation. I am amazed by the honesty, openness, and vulnerability from everyone in this book. I learned so, so much and highly recommend it to everyone. It would make for an excellent book group choice—there is much to unpack and discuss.

I received a free digital copy of this book from Algonquin Books, and I was pleasantly surprised by much I loved reading and learning from it. It tells the story of 3 sisters, 2 twins from Vietnam who were separated at birth (Ha and Isabella), and a third non-biological sister who was adopted by an American family along with Isabella (Olivia).

While the book focused primarily on their story, it also gave greater context to transracial adoptions and the history of adoption within the United States. While many families adopt to help provide children with a “better life”, this book begs the question of whether the life they are providing truly is better, as adoptees may struggle with identity issues, racism, and their citizenship status.

I really enjoyed this book and how much I learned. Erika was able to weave history and research into the stories of the three sisters to help highlight how good intentions can also bring harm, if not backed by well-informed decisions. If you’re looking to learn more about transracial adoptions, especially within between Asia and the United States, definitely check out this book.

This is a story of identical twin girls who were separated at birth, adopted, and raised in two different countries. The girls didn't know about each other until they were in their teens. It was heartbreaking, interesting, and a very compelling read.

[4.5/5 stars]

Isabella and Hà are identical twins who were born in Vietnam. Their mother was unable to care for them and they were separated as babies. Living in different countries (Vietnam and America), they were reunited as teenagers.

This book delivers more than just a story about adoptees. Hayasaki does an amazing job at offering an insightful look into the complex world of adoption while bringing emotions into the pages with sisterhood. This is an incredibly well-researched work of history - after wars, even "good intentions" can be corrupted by the system and (transracial/transnational) adoptions can negatively impact families and lives of adoptees, those suffering from the remnants of racism, colonialism and imperialism.

This book also delves deep into the science, with behavioral researches that show the way the twins' character and individualism are influenced by nurture vs nature. Interweaving the relationships between adoptee-adoptive family-birth family with historical context, adoption is such a delicate bond which meaning goes beyond the process by itself. While it took me a while to get used to the format, this book opened my eyes to transracial adoption and different cultures (Vietnamese). Even though I was less emotionally invested than I thought, this is a book that doesn't need all the intensity for us to recognize its relevance and value. Isabella and Hà's journey of sisterhood was genuine, ending in a heartwarming tone.

Urgent and written with dedication, SOMEWHERE SISTERS is ultimately a chronicle of privilege, identity and family. A book that should be read with care.

This book was so much more than I expected. I thought it was just the story of identical twin Vietnamese girls (Loan and Hà) separated while still infants. One was given to an orphanage and adopted by an American family, while the other twin was given to her aunt to raise. The girls didn’t know the other one existed until they were older. That in itself made for an interesting story. The family also adopted another little girl (renamed Olivia) that had bonded with Loan in the orphanage.

But this book was so much more. It addressed the transnational adoption process. One woman in Vietnam did all she could to assist the children and the adoptive parents. But there was also a couple who took advantage of both the adopting parents and the adoptees. I had no idea that our transracial and transnational adoption policies are so inadequate. Many adopted children have lived their entire lives in the US only to learn that the paperwork was never submitted to make them US citizens. I found that so shocking!

I was saddened by the bullying that Isabella (aka Loan) had to endure in school. Surprisingly, Olivia was more easily accepted by her peers.

I enjoy reading about not only the adoptive family but also the biological parents. The meetings of the girls and their biological families were very emotional.

With all that the adoptive family went through, it was obvious that they were a wealthy family. That left me wondering how an average middle-class family could ever afford a transnational adoption.

Hayasaki also covered the research done worldwide on twin theory. I am sure you have all heard some of the theories. Fascinating!

It is obvious that Hayasaki did extensive research in preparation for this book. It read like a novel and kept me completely engrossed. I highly recommend this book.

I really liked this one. And I'm super surprised by that. If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, you know I don't do nonfiction. I'll read fantasy, romance, scifi. Anything but nonfiction.

Which is why I'm so happy I took a chance on this one! I never got bored, I was interested the entire time. And I feel like I really learned. This book challenged my preconceived notions, and forced me to think. It did it in a way that felt natural. It did it using characters I cared for and a plot I was invested in. It's a book I'm happy I picked up, and one I'd definitely recommend.

Thanks to the publisher for sending a free copy in exchange for an honest review

Adoption is a complex topic, and this book reveals the many additional layers added to that complexity when children are moved not just between families but between countries. This made it a tough book to read, to be honest. But perhaps that reveals why it’s so necessary to tell this story. As someone who has adopted domestically through foster care, I appreciate how well this book shows the different perspectives of the people involved, and how the realities of adoption are complicated and often painful. An important read for anyone considering adoption, and one I imagine will be helpful to people who are making sense of having been adopted themselves.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

Identical twin girls in Vietnam are separated at 3 months of age and raised in completely different environments: one in poverty in the hills of Vietnam, the other is adopted by a wealthy family in Midwest America. This story tracks their lives, their families, their struggles, and their dreams as they grow and discover they have a twin sister half way around the world. It also exposes a lot about this country’s failings at handling out-of-country adoptions and paths to citizenship. It is a very caring look at these girls and their families.

Thanks to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC to read and review.

In 1998, biological twins were born to a mother in Vietnam who struggled to care for them. Hà was taken in by their biological aunt and grew up in a rural village. She attended the local school, played outside, didn’t always have electricity and her home was subject to frequent monsoons. Loan was in an orphanage before a wealthy, white American family adopted her and renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in Chicago, with her nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Vietnam. Isabella and Olivia attended Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college. When Isabella’s mother discovered there was a biological twin in Vietnam, it opened up a new world for both of them.

Erika Hayasaki interviewed the birth and adoptive families of both twins and delved into their ideas about adoption and what constitutes a good life. She also discusses twin studies and the nature vs. nurture debate. Isabella and Hà have the same genetic blueprint but vastly different environments they were raised in, while Isabella and Olivia share no genes at all but had shared environments they were raised in. This alone would have been a fascinating enough hook for a story, but as we learn in the prologue, Erika had twin boys of her own, is of mixed Japanese heritage, and had strangers assume she was adopted while growing up. These similarities opened up the opportunity for a story, which soon became complicated after the three young women met in 2018. The pandemic and anti-Asian hate that came afterward were also difficult to navigate as well as the new meaning of family.

My heart went out to the twins' biological mother; born to an orphan herself, Liên had bodily deformities, no job, no social supports, and couldn’t read or write. She did the best she could, though one of the twins was sick and close to death, and wouldn’t be accepted into the orphanage. Hà survived her illness and was taken in by Liên’s sister and her partner. She never knew what it meant to be rich or poor, and her aunts brought her to Nha Trang’s orphanage too late to find Loan. By that time, she was in the United States and already living as Isabella. Vietnamese usually send children to orphanages as a last resort or pseudo-foster home, as extended family generally take care of children that parents otherwise can’t care for.

Adopting Vietnamese children, which had begun in the war era of the 1960s, was always fraught with racial and political tensions, as well as a poor understanding of the base culture the children would have been raised in. Erika not only interviewed the girls, but the biological mother, biological aunts, and presented their stories as well, so we understand exactly the kind of life they all lived, and the varieties of privilege that existed in Vietnam, separate from the opportunities given to Loan in her adoption.

While I was aware that twin studies existed, I wasn’t aware that the one who developed it in the 1800s also thought selective breeding of people and eugenics was a good idea. This theory shaped adoption in the United States at that time period, which I also hadn’t known, as well as the closed adoption system beginning in the 1930s. Closed adoptions means no background is given on children, and this system led to many adoption studies looking at the nature vs. nurture question. This question was further debated in the 1950s when there were more eugenics debates despite the influence that had over WWII, as well as the new study of behaviorism. The chapter outlining this was fascinating, as well as its juxtaposition between the early lives of the twin girls. We also get some history into transracial adoption, miscegenation laws, and even the potential of illegal baby brokers. Adoption is expensive, and this book really breaks down how it can be for some families, and why adoption isn’t always the answer.

Most adoption stories focus on adoptees or their families, and this one interviews not only the girls but their biological and adoptive families as well. We get their histories, their feelings on the adoption and the differences in their families, and the fears they had. Their families aren’t just bloodlines, but the people that raised them and loved them, helped shape the adults they grew into. I’m at that time in my life where such topics as family and community hit me hard, so this was an especially poignant book to read.

When I heard the title of this novel, I really wanted to review it. The synopsis hooked me even more. I was a twin and a preemie, and every story about twins and/ or preemies interests me.

The twins were born premature in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998. The twins' mother struggled to care for them. I was immediately concerned for Há and Loan (Isabella). I wondered what their fate would be.

They were both raised in different places on different continents, and that was intriguing. I kept praying that someday they'd be reunited.

The prologue helps in giving background in this book and I liked how the author wrote the book. The depth of research into adoption and the attention to detail is astounding. There are some great visuals in here but also descriptions of very trying times. Short chapters help maintain the already excellent pacing of the novel.

Erika Hayasaki is a new-to-me author and I definitely want to review more by her.

I think everyone should have a copy of this book. I learned so much about Vietnamese and US culture of the time.

When I heard the title of this novel, I really wanted to review it. The synopsis hooked me even more. I was a twin and a preemie, and every story about twins and/ or preemies interests me.

The twins were born premature in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1998. The twins' mother struggled to care for them. I was immediately concerned for Há and Loan (Isabella). I wondered what their fate would be.

They were both raised in different places on different continents, and that was intriguing. I kept praying that someday they'd be reunited.

The prologue helps in giving background in this book and I liked how the author wrote the book. The depth of research into adoption and the attention to detail is astounding. There are some great visuals in here but also descriptions of very trying times. Short chapters help maintain the already excellent pacing of the novel.

Erika Hayasaki is a new-to-me author and I definitely want to review more by her.

I think everyone should have a copy of this book. I learned so much about Vietnamese and US culture of the time.

This is a work of nonfiction, a chronicle of identity, poverty, privilege, and the painful and complex truths about adoption.
from Somewhere Sisters by Erika Hayasaki

We had just moved to a new community when a lady rushed me and our son across the room to meet her grandson. He was literally days older than our son. It was expected they would become friends. They were in the same class, went to the same summer camp, and sometimes got together. Our son told us that the boy was sad, angry, and felt alienated. He had been born in Korea and adopted as a baby by a well off Caucasian family who had already adopted an African American daughter. There were no other Asians in school. He was bullied. He agonized over why he had been given up. He was depressed.

I was drawn to read this book because of knowing that child.

Somewhere Sisters is the story of Vietnamese twins separated as infants, one remaining in her homeland and the other adopted by an American family. One kept her birth name, while the other was given an English name and didn’t even know how to pronounce her birth name. The American family also adopted another girl from the same orphanage, a younger child, as the girls had been deeply attached.

When the American family discovered their daughter had a twin, they searched for her sister. Once found, the mother visited them, helped to establish relationships between the families and provided financial aid. Eventually, they brought the twin to America for her education.

The book combines the twins’ story with information about adoption, the changing understanding of genetics and epigenetics and child raising, eugenics, xenophobia and racism. There is disturbing insight into the foreign adoption system that arose in late 20th c America. These passages are interesting, and at time disturbing, but turn our attention away from our emotional attachment to the sisters.

Foreign adoptions were fueled by several social changes. First, the availability of the birth control pill resulted in fewer American children in the adoption system. The end of the Viet Nam War and American guilt created an interest in welcoming Viet Nam babies to America for adoption. President Ford’s Operation Babylift took hundreds of babies, assumed to be orphans, from the country; the first plane load blew up shortly after liftoff, killing 78 of the children. Some of the children taken from their country had left family behind. The program was hailed as merciful, but others labeled it child exploitation. “Of the two thousand to three thousand orphans evacuated and sent to Western families, as many as fifteen hundred of them were estimated to never have been abandoned,” the author quotes Dana Sachs.

The twins in this book were given up by their mother who had no income or home. The babies would not have survived. Her sister and her partner adopted the stronger twin. The other girl was left at an orphanage. When their mother returned to see her daughter, she already in America. The mother loved her children, but she knew they were provided for and would have a chance at an education.

The twin who grew up in America was the victim of racism and bullying in school. What she experienced reminded me so much of the experience of the boy I had known. His parents, like so many, provided a comfortable, upper middle class life but did not understand the special needs of a foreign adoption. In the book, the American mother is compelled to find her daughter’s twin and arrange their meeting, without asking if it was something their daughter welcomed, without understanding the confusing feelings she had. The necessity of providing counseling and support for adopted children is one important lesson in the book.

It was surprising to learn that in 2001 foreign adoptees under age eighteen were given citizenship. but tens of thousands discovered they were not citizens and liable to deportation. The girls in this book discovered they had resident cards for ten years only. In 2022 a bill was passed to automatically give citizenship to all intercountry adoptees.

The book shares disturbing history and raises important questions.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Topic: Vietnamese identical twin girls are given up for adoption at birth in 1998. One girl was adopted by a wealthy Midwestern family in the U.S. and the other remained in Nha Trang, Vietnam with an aunt. This nonfiction work tells the story of the unusual steps taken to finally reunite the two sisters.

The book: The author discusses the two girls, the twins, during their teens when they first meet, and compares their different experiences growing up, in terms of nature vs nurture science. The book also examines culture and belonging and the conflicts inherent in the topic of adoption.

I was very impressed with the amount of research that went into this book. I was also wowed by the author's interviewing of the U.S. and Vietnamese families and the multiple travels to and from Vietnam to complete this study and write the story of the twins before and after they meet.

The American adoptive mother's extensive efforts to reunite the girls and to prepare the Vietnamese raised twin to live with them in the U.S. is astounding. The amount of planning and funds needed to do this was extraordinary.

I understand that many adoptees may not get this kind of dedication from adoptive parents but this book makes me wonder about other similar stories that we have not heard.

A five star read.

Erika Hayasaki has successfully written Somewhere Sisters as a heartrending personal story about two twin sisters from Vietnam separated at birth, while also shining a light on the complicated and often corrupt business of adoption. She gives a voice to adoptees, examining intercountry and transracial adoption, asking the hard questions that deserve to be acknowledged. I found myself reading this one quickly, not wanting to set it aside, intrigued and enlightened.

We meet Isabella and Hà as infants born in Vietnam in 1998 to a single mother struggling to care for her two children. As her babies become sicker from malnutrition, someone points her in the direction of an orphanage. The orphanage agrees to take Isabella, the healthier of the two, but declares Hà too sickly to accept. The girls’ mother makes the hard decision to leave Isabella at the orphanage and ultimately leaves Hà with a sister in a nearby village. While Isabella is eventually adopted by a wealthy American family and given the name Isabella, Hà is raised by her aunt and her aunt’s partner in the village. Isabella is adopted along with Olivia, a younger girl at the same orphanage who is not related to Isabella but whom Isabella had become close with, the adoptive family agreeing with the suggestion to keep them together.

When Isabella’s adoptive mother eventually learns Isabella has a twin sister, she is determined to reunite the sisters, starting a chain events that will alter not only the sisters’ lives, but the lives of many others touched by their story, as well.

In this book the reader is given a look at three different adoption stories within one family: Isabella adopted by an American family, growing up amid a wealthy and predominately white neighborhood, is often subjected to racism and bullying, while Olivia is accepted more easily by her school peers. Hà, living in Vietnam, is also bullied for having two moms and being poor. All three girls have complicated feelings about having relationships with their birth relatives, pushed by their parents in varying directions at young ages, ultimately finding some semblance of peace about their own stories.

While it’s easy to only think about the positives of adoption, many times adoptive parents and birth parents are not given the full story. Hayasaki emphasizes the point in Somewhere Sisters that maybe the focus should be more on what’s best for the adoptees than on the adopting or birth parents. Methodically researched, Somewhere Sisters gives the reader plenty to think about, and I most appreciated getting adoptees’ view on their own experiences through adoption. I highly recommend this heartbreaking and illuminative read!

Somewhere sisters tells the story of Isabella, Olivia, and Ha, three young women who were adopted. Olivia and Isabella were adopted by Americans and lived in the Chicago area. While Ha was raised in Vietnam by her aunt. Isabella and Ha are twins separated at a few weeks old, and they didn’t know the other one existed until they were older kids. They ended up meeting eventually with the work of Isabella and Olivia’s adopted mom Keely searching for Ha for years. Once she found her in Vietnam she worked on reconnecting the girls as well as finding Olivia’s birth family as well to try and give them a balance of both worlds. Throughout this, we are also learning some of the history of Vietnam and why so many children are put up for adoption. Somewhere Sisters goes into how finding out who your birth family is can be hard, and a lot to take in, and for some, it works, but for others, they don’t want that. The author Erika does such a good job of not only telling the three young women’s stories but also teaching about international adoptions and the twin theories we’ve all heard about. Erika followed the three women for four years as they graduated high school, traveled to Vietnam to visit birth families, and starting college.
On top of that, all of the research and work that Erika put in is very well done and at the end of the book, she gives notes, a bibliography, and recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn more.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. Learning about each of the girls, and a little about what they were feeling was interesting. Seeing how adoption affects everyone differently and why each of the girls was feeling that way was done so well by Erika. Each of the women got to have their own voice and to say what they wanted to about the situations that were happening.
I hope they are all able to do what they love in the future and continue to stay close with one another no matter where they all end up in this world for their jobs.

What a well-researched and eye-opening book. Somewhere Sisters follows the journeys of Isabella, Olivia, and Hà. Isabella and Hà are biological twins separated and adopted out shortly after they were born. Olivia was in the orphanage with Isabella and were adopted by the same parents.

Erica Hayasaki explores what it is to be an orphan in Việt Nam as well as an orphan brought to the US from Việt Nam and other countries. She explores the concepts of nature vs nurture, especially in relation to twins in different settings and upbringings. She did an astounding amount of research, and I was delighted to see some case studies I had already heard of while learning of so many more. I also learned about the mass extraction of children from Việt Nam during Gerald Ford’s presidency. There’s exploration of white savior-ism, cultural assimilation whether natural or forced via adopted parents, cultural appropriation, and so much more. I never felt like Hayasaki was shaming, but trying to enlighten. This is very well-researched and there’s a lot of clinical outlook paired with emotive intel from the families. Through Hayasaki’s writing, I felt the whirlwind of confusion that these girls had to go through; the range of emotions when traveling to countries that they aren’t familiar with and trying to strike a bond with their biological families years down the road. The path to finding their identities between their various families, how they were brought up, their aspirations, and their past. I felt confused, overwhelmed, and excited FOR them and I was only getting to experience it through the pages of a book.

I really enjoyed Somewhere Sisters. I love a book where I can learn, expand my worldview, and read someone’s life story. This was very satisfying and I didn’t want to put it down. Thanks again to Algonquin and the author for having me.