66. Without a Map by Meredith Hall

In 1965, Meredith found herself pregnant at the age of sixteen. During gym class, she refused to do a somersault and her pregnancy was exposed to the school. She soon found herself expelled from school, rejected by her friends, and forced to leave her mother’s home. The remainder of her pregnancy took place in her father’s home, where she was hidden upstairs and told not to go outside in case people saw a young pregnant girl walking around the neighborhood. Forced to give up her son for adoption, Meredith finished high school at a boarding school and then spent her twenties walking country to country in Europe. Eventually settling in Maine, she was divorced and raising two young sons when her first son found her and was reunited.

A bittersweet memoir full of heartache and loss, this is a sparse book that is ultimately uplifting to readers. I first read a portion of the book in the New York Times, where Hall wrote an essay on reconnecting with her adult son, who was actually raised in her father’s hometown and suffered from poverty and abuse during his childhood. For another take on adoption memoirs, check out A.M. Home’s story about finding her birth parents at: http://www.tcpl.org/sarah/2007/08/39-mistresss-daughter-memoir-by-am.html