Jane Jeong Trenka and her sister Carol were adopted by Frederick and
Margaret Brauer and raised in a small Minnesota town—a place “where the
sky touches the earth in uninterrupted horizon…where stoicism is
stamped into the bones of each generation.” They were loved as American
children without a past.
With inventive and radiant prose, Trenka recounts a childhood of
insecurity, a battle with a stalker that escalates to a plot for her
murder, and an extraordinary trip to Seoul to meet her birth mother and
siblings. Lost between two cultures for the majority of her life, it is
in Korea that she begins to understand her past and the power of the
unspoken language of blood.
“A book born of a need for release,
for confrontation, and for connection. It is a beacon for adopted
families, and a powerful addition to the literature of American
identity.” —Minnesota Monthly
“Adoption memoirs are not rare, but this one stands out because of the
quality of the writing and the aspect of adoption it portrays.” —Booklist
“Trenka
has structured her book in a delightful, spiraling collage of prose
forms. Her use of letters (both real and imagined), fairy tales,
one-act plays, imaginary science projects, rules for home economics,
excerpts from child-welfare manuals and poems are woven into a
language-rich tapestry...the book, a lovely chaos of art and
imagination and memory, reads like life itself...Such is the power of The Language of Blood, a book that translates, and transcends, the eternal questions of home, belonging, family, identity.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
