On Loss and Gain

Ann Hood visited Bernardsville Public Library last year for an author interview concerning her latest publication, The Book That Matters Most. In discussing her life, she shared her personal story of grief at the loss of her five-year old daughter to illness in 2002. At the end of the program, a few of our audience members shared their own stories with her as well. This is a photo from one of those encounters. 

Out of her grief, the author came to write such books as The Knitting Circle and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. But out of this experience she also decided with her husband to adopt a daughter from China, which led to the writing of our book, The Red Thread. On her webpage, Ann Hood writes, "The Red Thread was inspired my family's decision to adopt our daughter Annabelle from China in 2005. Although the characters on that journey in the novel are all fictional, their desire to create families is universal and true. Like many adoptive parents, I wondered about the brave woman who gave up her daughter. Those imaginings led me to write the stories of six women in China who make that same painful decision. The Chinese belief in the red thread inspired both the title, and the metaphor of the story."