Identical twins Isabella and Hà were born in Vietnam but separated soon after. While Hà grew up in a rural village and was raised by her aunt and partner, Isabella was adopted, along with another Vietnamese girl Olivia, by a wealthy white American family in the suburbs of Chicago. The three girls' lives took an unexpected turn when Isabella & Olivia's adoptive mother learned of Hà.

In this seminal book, Hayasaki explores the themes of nature vs nurture and cross-cultural adoption from multiple angles. Apart from detailing the early lives of the three sisters and their families through extensive interviews, Hayasaki also includes research topics on twins, especially genetics and epigenetics! As a certified science nerd, I enjoyed reading these discussions.

I also love Hayasaki's research on the relationships between adoptive families and adoptees. In particular, how white families adopt non-white babies and how their colorblindness inadvertently causes more stress and trauma to these children. I wasn't aware Americans tend to increase their adoption of Asian kids after wars — Japanese and Korean babies after WW2 and Vietnamese children after the Vietnamese War.

Somewhere Sisters is a compelling story about three sisters with a great mixture of investigative journalism, political commentary, and pop science.

Thank you to Algonquin and NetGalley for the eARC.