When You Never Said Goodbye

Against the odds, eighteen-year-old Liz McLane, adoptee and aspiring poet, searches for her birth mother in this sensitive and daring novel told through her own accessible and moving poems and journal entries.  

A student at NYU in Greenwich Village, Liz McLane is pursuing her dream of becoming a poet and, at the same time, determined to find her birth mother, no matter what the results may be. Through her journals, Liz records her struggle to navigate adoption bureaucracy and laws.  In spare and poignant poems, she confides her fears and her prayers.  Could her birth mother be the unknown guitarist in Washington Square Park, who sings a soulful song in a strangely familiar voice?  Against a backdrop of college life—classes on Alice Munro and Billy Collins and an active social life—and with the help of her sister, friends, and a private investigator, Liz summons the courage to face the truth about her mother and herself.   

This is an unforgettable novel full of heart that addresses the primary questions all adoptees must answer for themselves: who was the woman who gave me life, and why did she decide to give me away?  Based on author Meg Kearney’s own experiences.