The Earthquake Child: A Novel

(Paperback)

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The Earthquake Child is the story of an adoption, told through the voices of an adoptee, his desperate young birth mother, and his loving but grieving adoptive mother.

How can Joshuas behavior be explained This question is all-consuming for his adoptive family. Joshua was relinquished at birth, then adopted only days later. Is it his genetic inheritance of substance abuse and generational poverty that causes him to act out, run away and eventually become involved with drugs Is it the losses hes experienced in his adoptive family Or is it the very fact of adoption itselfthe trauma of being amputated from his gestational mother to be raised by a family unrelated to him by blood, culture, or biology

What makes our children who they are These voices and questions will resonate with all parents, but particularly with those who are or have been part of the adoption triangle: adoptees, mothers who have relinquished a child, and parents whove added a child to their family through adoption.

Reviews

This novel offers rich reportage on the consequences of adopting...An evocative tale about the intertwining life choices, challenges, and tragedies of an adoption.
Kirkus Reviews

"The thoughts, feelings, and actions that go into adoption are explored in the novelThe Earthquake Child, which glories in human faults and virtues.

Foreword Clarion Reviews

The Earthquake Child is a clear-eyed look at the most complicated of family lives, bound tightly by loyalty and ineradicable love.
Susan Straight, National Book Award Finalist and author ofMecca, In the Country of WomenandHighwire Moon

Elayne Klassons second novel,The Earthquake Child,demonstrates her psychologically sophisticated treatment of a womans journey toward building a family. Anyone who has ever had to send a child away for his safety will relate to Klassons authentic, sensitive portrayal of that agony.This deeply affecting, well-told story has no villains or heroes. Rather, good human beings trying to address the hurdles of forming and blending families, never knowing which challenges for an adopted child are just tremors, which will become major quakes, and how to manage expectations in the aftershocks. Dont miss this book.
Barbara Stark-Nemon, authorofEven in DarknessandHard Cider

A riveting familial rollercoaster,The Earthquake Childportrays one mothers determination to raise a child. Bravo to Elayne Klasson for so honestly describing the ripple effects of adoption, for child, birth parents, and adoptive parents. This is a gripping story wrought with emotion and truth.
Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg, author ofEdenandThe Nine

Elation, sadness, disappointment, rage, and love explode from the pages ofThe Earthquake Childemotions rendered even more compelling as they are experienced through the alternating perspectives of an adopted boy, his birth-mother, and his adoptive family. A moving and evocative tale, consummately constructed, and beautifully told.
Robert Steven Goldstein, author ofEnemy Queen,Wills Surreal Period, andCats Whisker

In Elayne Klassons new novel,the mother-child relationship takes center stage, but is amplified by the adoption equation. This well-crafted and true-to-life plot involves two mothers and the son they both cherish. It is about love, loss, longing, and the road to becoming whole.The Earthquake Childshows the fierceness of a mothers love, the angst of adoption, and the secrets that set individual wants and needs colliding. Whether you are inside the adoption experience or on the outside looking in, Klassons well-informed novel will leave you thinking. And isnt that what a really good book should do
Julie Ryan McGue, author ofTwice a Daughter: A Search of Identity, Family, and Belonging

Beautifully written and important, Elayne Klassons book The Earthquake Child will rock you in all the best ways. Nature vs Nurture comes alive in this brilliantly crafted story of an adoptive mothers unfailing love, a young birthmothers grief and shame, and an incredibly gifted, yet troubled son. I doubt Ive read a more compelling book that covers so authentically the emotional ups and downs that come with the adoption of a child. Read this book. Youll be glad you did.
Laura L. Engel, author ofYoull Forget This Ever Happened Secrets, Shame, and Adoption in the 1960s

This fine novel provides the reader with many pleasures. Youll find well-drawn characters to care about, a suspenseful story, an emotionally-resonant depiction of the psychological stresses related to adoption, and a prose style that is clear and enjoyable to read.
Monica Starkman, MD, author of The End of Miracles, Professor emerita of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School

Joshuas struggles illustrate the conundrum of nature and nature and how ill-prepared adoption triad members can be when embarking on the adoption journey. Love, loss, and genes propel Joshua to act out in unimaginable ways. Following Joshua and his mother on their journey, with all its twists and turns, keeps the readers rapt attention, hoping for a better future for this troubled young man. His story is thought-provoking and a page-turning read for all parents, prospective parents, and for those examining the connections which make a family.
Elaine R. Gordon, Ph.D., author ofMommy, Did I Grow in Your Tummy, clinical psychologist specializing in alternative family-building and reproductive medicine

Past Praise for the author:

Praise forLove is a Rebellious Bird

2019 National Jewish Book Awards Finalist

A touching illustration of a sixty-year relationship between a girl and boy from early childhood to old age. Over time there is a power shift from one to another as their lives intersect. From first love to last love,Love Is a Rebellious Birdby Elayne Klasson explores the manner in which some one special always holds a place in our heart. This book illustrates that our connections help us deal with the obstacles we all encounter . . . its message will resonate with readers who maybe facing challenging life decisions now; realizing we will all experience the vicissitudes of life sooner or later. This poignant novel addresses the nature of love and commitment (through a Jewish lens) and is a remarkable depiction of such.

Jewish Book Awards

Klasson fills every scene she can with thought-provoking reflections on the nature of love, family, and romance. A surprisingly complex and realistic love story delicately narrated by an endearing protagonist.

Kirkus Reviews

Elayne Klassons artistic and compassionate novelLove is a Rebellious Bird focuses on a lifelong love affair . . . an operatic, enduring, and subtle romance.

Foreword Reviews Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5

A deeply touching story that moves deftly through the decades to a sweet and graceful finale.

Carl Alasko, Ph.D., author of Beyond Blame and Emotional Bullshit

Love is a Rebellious Birdvividly evokes the worlds of Judith Sherman and Elliott Pine: 1950's Chicago in the Jewish neighborhood of West Rogers Park, the subsequent whiplash of the liberated 60s, marriages that fail and marriages that thrive, losses from illness and ambitions denied. Klasson shows us the seismic repercussions of a love, more unequal than unrequited, that vibrate over a lifetime. While Elliott may never fully love Judith the way she deserves, the reader certainly will.

Stacey Swann, author ofOlympus, TX and Contributing Editor at American Short Fiction

Elayne Klasson has written a novel that is both very real and very brave. Her character, Judith, begins the story in her seventies, looking back, but the words are not written to us. Shes writing to Elliot, a man she has loved all her life, though both of them have married others. For me it was always you, Elliot. Its bold for the protagonist to deliver her story to you, Elliot, as she covers their history from teenage to old age, and it works, as we move through a life of learning, teaching, mothering, and wild passions. The last chapters are as surprising as they are tender. I was captured.

Gerald DiPego, author ofKeeper of the City andCheevey and Screenwriter of Message in a Bottle and Phenomenon

Author Bio

Elayne Klasson grew up on Chicagos northside. She attended university and graduate school in the MidwestOhio State University and the University of Michigan, earning a Masters of Public Health and then a PhD in psychology. She lived and worked in Barbados, West Indies, for many years. Her professional career has been in academia at San Jose State University, with her research and clinical area of expertise being the severely mentally ill. A transplant to the Santa Ynez Valley in California, she is a popular lifestyle newspaper columnist there. She has also appeared on San Francisco public television as a restaurant critic. Elayne is the author of the National Jewish Book Award finalist and best-selling Love is a Rebellious Bird. She and her husband, David, have five children between them; biological and adopted.