Synopsis:
When the result of a mail-in DNA test links two strangers, it’s an answered prayer. Well, for one half-sister it is. For the other, it dismantles everything she knows to be true.
As they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, their roles reverse in ways no one could have foreseen.
Caroline lives a full, happy life. She has a thriving career, three feisty children, an enviable marriage, and a close-knit extended family. She couldn’t have scripted her path better. Except for just one thing. Caroline is about to discover her fundamental beliefs about all of them are wrong.
Sela lives a life in shades of gray. She suffers from irreversible kidney failure and in the wake of her illness, her marriage crumbled. Her beloved mother and lifelong best friend both died. She refuses to be defined by grief, but worries about what will happen to her two-year-old son if she doesn’t find a kidney donor in time.
Sela is the only person who knows that Caroline is her half-sister and may be her best hope for a future. But Sela’s circumstances aren’t as clear-cut as they appear. One one misstep could destroy everything.
From the moment Caroline meets Sela, both must reexamine what it really means to be family, the depths of a mother’s love, and the limits and the power of forgiveness.
Would you risk everything to save the life of the person who turned yours upside down?
Review:
When Caroline’s husband, Walt, gave DNA test kits to the family for Christmas, she didn’t complain. Although she had never seen the appeal of DNA testing, she was just happy that Walt helped with the shopping. An only child, she was confident there was no possibility that she would find a sibling she had no knowledge of. So when she receives an email from a woman claiming to be her half-sister, she dismisses it. After all, she reviewed her results and found no surprises.
Worse, Sela claims she is, like Caroline, thirty-five years old and their birthdays are just a couple of months apart. She lives in North Carolina, a half day’s drive from Caroline’s home.
Caroline determines that Sela’s results were uploaded into the company’s database after Caroline’s. And Caroline did not request notification of subsequently-discovered close relatives. So when she logs into her account, the database updates, announcing that Sela Bell is her half sibling. She logs into her parents’ accounts and discovers that they have not accessed the software. But when she clicks the opt-in box in her father’s account, he receives the same notification declaring that Sela Bell is his daughter.
Strawser is not the first author to tackle the thorny topic of DNA testing bringing shocking and sometimes devastating results that change lives and shatter families. But she does so with compassion in a well-balanced story of half-sisters who would otherwise never have known each other existed.
The test results wreak havoc in Caroline’s well-ordered life and close-knit family, and her father is forced to confess the truth that she was never meant to learn. But he is determined not to hurt her mother further, insisting that he will not meet Sela. Caroline doubts everything she ever knew to be true about her parents, their relationship, and the family in which she was raised. Now she has to face the disappointment, disbelief, and distrust she feels toward the man who raised her, loving her unconditionally. She naturally resents “having to think of who else he might have failed along the way.” And further complicating matters, she learns that her mother has manipulated her life in unimaginable and, perhaps, unforgivable ways.
The two women forge a tenuous relationship. Caroline wants to meet Sela, feeling that her father failed Sela and her late mother, Rebecca. Meanwhile, Sela is being pressured to find a kidney donor while there’s still time. She actually attends a seminar where participants are coached about how to handle “The Big Ask: The Big Give.” After all, she needs to endear herself to her newly-found half-sister because she could be a match, a donor. But Sela is certain that she could never ask someone for a kidney, especially a sister she just found. But at every doctor’s appointment, she is warned that her condition is worsening. And Sela is terrified that she will die and leave her beautiful two-year-old son, Brody, without a mother.
Strawser credibly portrays the inner turmoil that Caroline suffers when she learns about Sela. The revelation causes her to question all aspects of her life and values, and the foundation upon which she created a family with Walt, all of which is compounded by her determined search for answers about the past and Sela’s actual circumstances. Strawser’s characters are fully formed, layered, and each is sympathetic in his/her own way, despite the choices and mistakes they have made. A Million Reasons Why is devoid of heroes or villains but is, rather, populated by deeply flawed characters, some of whom did terrible things for reasons they believed to be justifiable.
Strawser cleverly injects twists and turns along the way that keep the story interesting as readers attempt, along with Caroline, to piece together the shocking and heartbreaking truth. Including why Sela is seeking a kidney donor on her own, rather than waiting to be selected from a transplant candidate list.
Through her characters, Strawser unflinchingly examines what it really means to be part of a family, and what, if anything, family members owe each other. She addresses mental illness, grief, and the catastrophic damage both can inflict on marriage. The story is timely and believable, and illustrates how scientific processes made commercially available to consumers can unearth decades-old secrets that were meant to stay buried, with unforeseen and far-reaching consequences. Strawser thoughtfully questions whether damage done to relationships when secrets are revealed can be forgiven and if things can eventually be made right again. A Million Reasons Why is thoroughly imagined and impeccably crafted. It’s a poignant, sensitive, and thoroughly compelling story that would be a perfect choice for book clubs because of the numerous aspects of the story that invite discussion and debate.
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