A Part of Me — Vivien Brown

A compelling and emotional novel that asks: What do you owe to a child you let go?

A widow in her sixties, Geraldine is financially secure, happy, and about to marry her second husband, William. She's come a long way from being a motherless fourteen-year-old giving a baby up for adoption -- but over the decades, she's made a special effort to support vulnerable girls as a way of compensating for her lingering guilt.

Miles away in London, Beth has endured a painful divorce and the death of her adoptive mother -- and now faces kidney disease. A transplant means waiting indefinitely for a stranger to die . . . unless someone volunteers as a living donor. She will not consider putting her three children at risk or burdening them with the truth, but with both her adoptive parents gone, could the time be right to track down the birth parents she knows nothing about?

When biological mother and daughter finally meet, the emotions that accompany the reunion are complicated further by haunting questions: Is Beth driven by selfishness as much as -- or more than -- a desire to connect? Will Geraldine's urge to help Beth by being tested as a potential donor jeopardize her new life with William? What does she owe, and to whom?

Thought-provoking and absorbing, this novel explores the meaning of family, the nature of guilt and regret, and the conflicts raised by the miracles of modern medicine.