Shadow Migration: Mapping a Life

by Suzanne Ohlmann

With her feet firmly rooted on the plains of Nebraska, Suzanne Ohlmann launches the reader into flight over miles and decades of from an apple-pie childhood in America’s Fourth of July City to the dirt floors of a cowshed in rural India, we zigzag across time and geography to see the world through Ohlmann’s eyes and to discover with her the pain she’d been avoiding through her boomerang travels away from her native home.

Through incarnations as a musician, arts manager, and registered nurse, Ohlmann finally lands in Texas, buys a house, and gets a dog. But her house is haunted, and so is she. In the dark solitude of Ohlmann’s basement the vision of a dead child presents her with a harrowing she can go home to Nebraska and seek the truth of her biological past, or, like the boy, surrender to the depths of her own darkness. With honesty, compassion, and a sense of humor, Ohlmann recounts her tenacious search into the shadows of her life.
 

Genres: Memoir

192 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2022

Reviews

[Suzanne Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shadow Migration is the exploration of the narrator's search of her birth parents and her own identity, in an attempt to "re-do" her birth story, examining and reckoning with the primal wounds due to adoption. The writing is gorgeous, and the narrator is quirky and likable. The book had me laughing one minute and crying the next. It's a beautiful memoir, and I highly recommend it.

[Jody Keisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many, many wonderful things in this memoir about searching out one's origins is the narrator's personality. Equal parts soulful, intelligent, and hilarious, Suzanne Ohlmann tells the story of being separated from her biological roots as an infant and how that separation permeated every aspect of her life. Suzanne's adoption haunted her as she moved through relationships and places, unsettled and restless. A secondary character here is Suzanne's hometown of Seward, NE, which she paints as a charismatic place full of interesting people, despite or maybe because of its old-timey rural qualities. You'll fall in love with Suzanne and feel like you're leaving a good friend when you finish the last page.

[Joanne Neeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched Suzanne grow up, so I was anxious to read her book. It made me sad, and happy, and all the feelings in between, as a good book should. Well done!
Take my word for it. Buy the book!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a poignant memoir that made me feel grateful for my parents and upbringing. Ohlmann demonstrates the inner conflict she felt trying to reconcile her adoption into a loving, but strict Lutheran family and her reconnection to her birth parents. It's a journey that takes her across the country and to India. It is also a journey across different careers, from music to nursing.

I didn't get a full picture of her music career in New York; a few sentences of explanation would have helped. I appreciated her descriptions of patients in her care and how they related to people in her personal life. Her story jumped around enough to get me confused at times, not that it had to be told in a linear way, but some connecting words would have helped.

Otherwise, it was beautifully told, and the images of the cranes near the end gave it a full-circle feel that also connected to the book's title.

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suzanne Ohlmann’s moving, poignant, and sometimes humorous book is about her search for her birth parents. While she does locate her birth mother, gains insights from their interactions and wishes for more, her birth father dies a year before she can find him. She hears only a few tantalizing stories from those who knew him, and is left wondering about the what ifs. She shares the hopes and frustrations of her search, and feelings of being abandoned by people who thought that she would have a better life without them. She also writes about her work as a nurse, spending time in India helping the sick, the human limitations of religion, the importance of trusting your emotions, the presence of music in her life, and more. She is honest about the events of her life that have brought her to this point.

[Carole Duff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written memoir about a woman’s search for her calling, her birth parents, and her identity. Though not strictly chronological, Ohlmann masterfully takes her readers on a geographical journey—from her roots in Nebraska to working in New York City, rural India, and San Antonio where she lands in nursing. There she discovers that being disconnected from her biological past is taking a terrible toll. Ohlmann shows how to navigate this delicate process of healing with persistence and grace.

[Casey Erin Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeously wrought story of a woman searching for her place in world after a combination of biology and circumstance left her wanting—and wondering.

The book is beautifully structured, drawing the reader through themes of belonging, home and identity, while keeping them oriented in time and space (and multiple far flung locales), with efficiency and lyrical grace.

The writer strikes the perfect balance of gorgeous writing, vulnerable insight and nitty-gritty realism—warning, her wry humour sneaks up on you from behind her beautiful prose, be ready.

Highly recommend.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book captivated me as I read the story of a longing for truth that was delivered with wit, wisdom, and honesty. It is so refreshing and needed in today's filtered and sugar-coated world. I may not be able to relate to stories about adoption, but this book shows how interconnected we all are and how our own stories can show up in others in the most unexpected ways. Thank you, Suzanne Ohlmann, for sharing not only your story but your delicious writing with us!

[Lisa Doggett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend Ohlmann's well-written, insightful memoir of coming to terms with her past after being adopted by a family that never felt like her own. Her story is both heart-breaking and funny, as she tries to build a relationship with her birth mother - once she finds her - and grieves for the father she'll never know. This book is for anyone who has struggled to understand and define their own identity -- or who just wants to read a great story.

[Sarah M. Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored Suzanne Ohlmann’s journey to find her biological family, a journey narrated by a strong, funny, compassionate voice to match the person behind the writing. This is beautiful, detailed writing rooted in the particulars that give our lives depth and richness. Ohlmann is one special gal.

[Alisa Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written search for self among the history of place, nature, and relationships

[Holly Pelesky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blame this book for my new kitten. It made me want that tender love.

[Amy Eaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully told story of the profound power of both nature and nurture. Ohlman's voice is tender, gentle, vulnerable and wonderfully wry and humorous.