Description:
In 1955, following the devastation of the Korean War, Bertha and Harry Holt made headlines for adopting eight Korean children. Driven by evangelical convictions and emboldened by a special act of Congress, the couple founded the Holt Adoption Program, which would facilitate the migration of tens of thousands of Korean children to the United States over the following decades. The Sueppels were among the families profoundly shaped by the legacy of the Holt Adoption Program, until 2008, when Steven found himself facing federal embezzlement and money laundering charges, he murdered Sheryl and their adopted children before ending his own life. What They Stole traces the interwoven histories of the Holts and the Sueppels. Meticulously researched and sensitive to its storytelling, Paige Towers examines how good intentions can coexist with systemic harm--and how the consequences of systems like the Holt's can reverberate across generations.
Brief description: Paige Towers is author of The Sound of Undoing: A Memoir in Essays. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, McSweeney's, and Harvard Review. Originally from Iowa, Towers now lives along the Washington coast.
Review Quotes: "In What They Stole, Paige Towers blends true crime, geopolitical analysis, and historical storytelling to examine the legacy of the Holt Adoption Program, which shaped international adoption for generations. Her gripping account of the trafficking, traumas, and tragedies at the core of the Holt story builds to an elegiac reckoning that is long overdue."--Gretchen Sisson, author, Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood