East Fishkill Community Library Online Book Group discussion

Share your thoughts on All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung here!

"What does it mean to lose your roots—within your culture, within your family—and what happens when you find them?

Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From early childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hopes of giving her a better life; that forever feeling slightly out of place was simply her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as she grew up—facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from—she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.

With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child. All You Can Ever Know is a profound, moving chronicle of surprising connections and the repercussions of unearthing painful family secrets—vital reading for anyone who has ever struggled to figure out where they belong."

This book was sheer beauty. Chung's writing style was captivating and emotional and I enjoyed every word she wrote. Her story was intense, and I think she really captured how she changed as a person. I heard an excerpt of this read on the radio, and I'm glad I got the chance to finally read the book.

I feel very lucky that I know so much about my family's history, and I always kind of took that information for granted.