The Kintsugi Poet: A Memoir—Blood Memory, Secrets, and Identity

by Mirella Di Benedetto

The Kintsugi A Memoir - Blood Memory, Secrets, and Identity

Mirella Di Benedetto writing as Anna Verduci

In this searing and formally ambitious memoir, Mirella Di Benedetto - writing under the name Anna Verduci - recounts a life fractured by institutional silence, familial secrecy, and cultural shame. The Kintsugi Poet is a deeply introspective narrative of adoption, identity, trauma, and the relentless search for truth in the face of systemic erasure.

Born into concealment and raised under a false name in 1970s Australia, the author undertakes a decades-long journey of reconstruction - legal, genetic, emotional. What begins as a private investigation gradually becomes a philosophical excavation of family, loss, and the inheritance of silence. Crossing from Melbourne to New York to Calabria, she confronts bureaucracies, bloodlines, and the ghosts of parents who never truly arrived.

Structured as a mosaic of fragments - memory shards, state documents, half-truths, and recovered voices - the memoir resists traditional narrative arcs in favour of emotional and structural integrity. It is a work of literary memoir in the highest formally precise, thematically layered, and ethically uncompromising.

The title draws from the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is mended with gold. Rather than conceal the fractures, Di Benedetto honours them - rendering a life not as a wound, but as a vessel made luminous through reassembly.

Written in lyrical, unflinching prose, The Kintsugi Poet will resonate with readers of Annie Ernaux, Deborah Levy, Christos Tsiolkas, and Carmen Maria Machado.

The author's background as a psychologist informs the memoir's depth, offering insight into the emotional logic of trauma, attachment, and reparation.

This memoir is not about finding a family. It is about becoming a self.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Memoir

423 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 29, 2025

About the author

I also write under the pen name Anna Verduci, a name that was once denied to me and later reclaimed.

At a teenager, I discovered I was adopted. That revelation shattered everything I thought I knew and began a decades long search for my father and my paternal bloodline, my origins, and my place in the world.

That journey became my memoir, The Kintsugi Poet: Blood Memory, Family Secrets, and Identity (Amazon #1 USA Bestseller in Adoption Kindle and Books, #2 in Biographies & Memoirs of Authors, #35 in Memoirs). The book explores hidden histories, loss, resilience, and the quiet miracle of belonging, including finding my father alive at 86 and an Italian Australian family I never knew I had.

From the same questions and silences grew Poetae Vulnerati Lunivernae (Wounded Poets of Luniverna), a historical mythic novel set in Renaissance Tuscany and due for release 14th February 2026. Where the memoir tells a lived story, Poetae imagines what history cannot record. It is a novel shaped by secrecy, forbidden love, inherited trauma, healing, and legacy, told through a lyrical and symbolic narrative.

My work moves between memoir, historical fiction, and myth, and is concerned with how memory survives through bloodlines, stories, and art.

Reviews

[Dee Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kintsugi Poet is an exquisitely written and deeply moving journey through memory, loss, identity, and the resilience of the human spirit. Mirella Di Benedetto’s words are raw yet lyrical, unflinchingly honest yet profoundly tender. Her exploration of family secrets, self-discovery, and the lifelong impact of adoption spoke directly to my heart.

As someone adopted due to China’s One Child Policy and who also found out in a less than ideal way, I felt an immediate kinship with Mirella’s story. She captures the complicated mix of gratitude, grief, and longing that comes with learning your life began in the shadows of someone else’s decisions. Her reflections on truth-telling, heritage, and the courage to reclaim your narrative made me feel both seen and understood in ways I didn’t expect.

This memoir is not just about one woman’s history. It’s about the universal search for belonging, the power of healing, and the beauty of embracing the cracks in our stories as part of what makes us whole.

Thank you Goodreads for the e-copy.

[Courtney Pityer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! Mirella's writing style is beautiful, even when describing circumstances that are traumatic and anything but beautiful. Her style keeps pushing you on to read the story, and what a story! It's amazing. If ever there is a book about overcoming our own personal obstacles and to find out how strong we can be and who we are, this is it. Great stuff Mirella!

[James Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good morning read. Enjoyed starting the day on the front porch and a cup of tea and a read of someone's journey through their life. For that person to open up to the world of their life and feelings takes a lot of courage and determination. I suppose the same that was needed to find out the answers they craved.

[Suzanne Jene · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving and engrossing account of the authors journey from the shocking discovery of her adoption to an incredible journey of discovery, uncovering the buried secrets of her true identity.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book.
Beautifully written and deeply moving.
It was a fascinating,thoughtful memoir.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novel is deeply personal journey, of healing and discovery. A radiant, soul-stiring read that lingers after the final page

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and engaging memoir!

[Ken Greenwood]

I was a work colleague of Mirella's for many years. I knew her early life had not been easy. I also knew of her search for her biological parents. What I didn't know was how difficult her early life had been and how persistent she needed to be in her search. This is the story of a strong individual who overcame many obstacles to reach her goal. The book can be a harrowing read at times. It is powerful. It led me to wonder what I would have done or how I would have coped if I were in her position. I highly recommend this book.

[Kathy L Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

"hearts surgically mended, but their minds broken." (p. 228)

This book is one that should provide hope to so many.
I am one of Mirella's clients who, as she mentions in her book, has had their heart surgically mended but their mind broken due to post perfusion syndrome. Mirella is a highly skilled clinical health psychologist who is helping me and many others, to put the pieces of our lives back together.
Having read her memoir, it is evident how her lived experience together with her academic study and practice, is woven into her professional practice.
Clearly Mirella has put the pieces of her life together and found her identity, past, present and future, in spite of difficult circumstances. With her help, there is hope for others and even me too.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in uncovering identity and piecing their lives back together, but especially to the thousands of other cardiac clients wherever they may be.
A big thank you!

[April Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kintsugi Poet is a deeply moving memoir that stays with you long after the final page. Mirella Di Benedetto writes with remarkable honesty and vulnerability about growing up adopted in Melbourne and the lifelong search for identity, belonging, and family.

What makes this book so powerful is its raw intimacy and emotional precision. It never falls into sentimentality, but instead offers a courageous and deeply human exploration of resilience, healing, and what it means to piece together the broken parts of yourself.

Melbourne becomes part of the emotional landscape of the memoir — at times harsh and isolating, yet still allowing moments of unexpected kindness, connection, and possibility to emerge.

A courageous, beautifully written, and deeply affecting book that I couldn’t put down once I started reading it. Far more than a memoir about loss, it is ultimately a story about survival, identity, and the universal need to be known.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, my apologies to Ms. Di Benedetto, the publishers and goodreads for taking so long to get this review done. I have excuses, but I should have completed this long ago.

I had difficulty getting into the book. I could not get a flow going with the story and I could not connect with the main character. While I sympathize with some of the feelings and behaviors she details in the book I could not get all the elements together.
I gave up some time ago (before goodreads added "did-not-finish" to the shelves) but thought I would pick up the ereader and try again, but just never had enough desire to have a go at it.
I appreciate the gift and not completing goes against my "waste not, want not" lifestyle.

I'm not able to suggest everyone read it since I did not read it myself.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found The Kintsugi Poet to be an extraordinarily powerful and beautifully crafted memoir. Mirella Di Benedetto takes the reader on an intimate journey through memory, grief, and self-discovery, while also illuminating the strength of the human spirit. Her writing is both poetic and unflinchingly honest, blending vulnerability with grace. The themes of family secrets, identity, and adoption resonated with me on a deeply personal level. This is more than just one woman’s story—it reflects the universal human longing for connection, the transformative nature of healing, and the profound beauty in learning to honor the broken pieces of our lives as part of our wholeness.

[Mark Di · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex & insightful story detailing familial secrecy and silence and the liberating search for truth and meaning . The term ‘ Kintsugi ‘ derives from the Japanese concept of the act of repairing broken pottery with golden inlays -which is a metaphor for what Mirella Di Benedetto is able to do in telling this story -repairing and healing fractured life experiences with her golden words which is the mortar that mends the emotional wounds and bring about a transformation . Well written and highly recommended !

[Maureen McCunnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, or didn't, there will be names of people and places you know of, people with links to the Italian underbelly that is Ndrangheta, suspected links to the murder of Colin Winchester (as reported in Under Investigation with Liz Hayes), and a broken heart (The Kintsugi Poet) that resulted in suicide. This is a case of fact is stranger (and more enthralling) than fiction. Mirella has finally found her whole self, but is the grass greener on the other side of the fence? An easy but captivating read.

[♏ Gina☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book evokes so many emotions - a roller coaster ride well worth the read. The author's past is a gamut of carefully controlled secrets that she must unravel in an effort to discover the truth of who she is, where she came from, and what the future may hold. The title of the book drew me in as I knew what "Kintsugi" referred to, and the fact that I enjoy reading memoirs. The title is perfection in and of itself. The story will gather you up, make you "feel the feels", and not let you go until the very last sentence. A definite favorite.

[Janet McKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book. Beautifully written, at times harrowing, moving and sad, but always engaging, hopeful and with a deep sense of compassion of both self and others.
The art of Kintsugi is the perfect symbol for the journey through trauma, the fracturing of identity and a path of healing and reconciliation. Mirella's words "It is not the brokenness that defines us, but how we choose to repair and grow from the cracks" resonates strongly.
I highly recommend this book.

[jamie Wyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read! A beautiful story that connects with many. I can tell you I’ve raised Foster Children and within our whole Family there are some adopted and when they grow up you see the pains they go through to find answers about where do I belong whose connected to me through blood. How did I get in Fostercare or Adopted wasn’t I wanted? So many questions. I loved this book 📕 and going on this journey. It’s raw and emotional,exciting and beautiful. Please take the time to read this!

[Steven Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alright so this book is an opus. It’s a Great Australian novel, but this is like, Looking for Alibrandi meets The Godfather meets Midnight in Sicily. The author writes in this rolling prose that captures the inner monologue of a child of migrants coming to terms with identity in a modern Australia.

Spoilers: the author discovers that she is related to a pivotal figure in one of Australia’s most enduring criminal mysteries and I’m here for it.

[Marie Afram · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kintsugi Poet really touched me. It's a painfully raw, honest and heartfelt memories about family, identity and healing. I found myself at times moved to tears. The images stayed with me and me stop and think about my own life experiences. The book reminded me that broken pieces can be made whole again.

[Polly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kintsugi Poet takes the reader on a journey that is delicate, honest, and luminous. The writing is soulful and deeply human, inviting reflection and reminding readers that healing can be both painful and profoundly beautiful. A quietly powerful read that lingers long after the final page (whichever way around you read it)!

[Enzo Caputo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kintsugi Poet is a stunning and heartfelt read that speaks directly to the soul.
Miirella Di Benedetto’s words are delicate yet powerful, weaving themes of healing,resilience and self love with the artful grace of Kinsugi itself.
Each chapter feels like a gentle reminder that our cracks make us more beautiful, not less.
Highly recommended for anyone on a journey of growth or recovery.

[Emily Michel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an incredible piece to read. This piece is written so well, it is so raw and really shows what a journey Mirella went on to find the answers she was looking for.
It really puts hope out there for others in similar situations. Thank you for sharing your story with us. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading a story unfold through courage and resilience.

[Melanie Krepcik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It brought back so many memories of Glenroy and what the world was like in the sixties to eighties.
Mirella's open and honest account of her life, her struggles, and her triumphs, was an engaging read.
I highly recommend this book to anyone searching for their families, or just their place in this world.

[Bonne Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartfelt and Compelling

This story touches on so many different levels for how adoption impacts so many! It brings to light how important it is for open communication and honesty!! This journey shared is so relatable and inspiring for the many adoptees who are struggling and experiencing similar challenges.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an engaging and personal story. It's a roller coaster of a ride with many twists and turns as the author investigates and searches for her roots and connections. There are some lovely elements of prose in there too. An enjoyable read.

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Pretentious. AI slop.

Genuinely a waste of time. "Limited AI used with full creative authorship" my ass. Fuck this horrible piece of shit book. Do not even bother.

Don't waste your time and avoid this book and it's "author" at all costs.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so interesting and detailed, l felt l was on the journey with Mirella at times so sad and the ups and downs of her life , had me amazed that she managed to write it so fluently. I would recommend this book as a book unable to put down.

[Debbie Trenker · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fascinating story

What an amazing and inspiring story of a woman who could have remained broken by the traumas and challenges but who created a beautiful broken vessel through her persistence and tenacity. A very good read

[AMAO · Rating 5 out of 5]

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