BIRTH MOTHER is a day-by-day account of the author's four-month trip to Mexico and Central America in the mid-1970s. What started out as a short trip over Christmas vacation became a much longer odyssey. The author lurched from one adventure to another, struggling to come to grips with troublesome parts of her past. As Joanna disappears into the social chaos of Guatemala City after a 7.3 earthquake, she plays a temporary role as La Maestra with a street gang, embracing a dark, dangerous and all-absorbing way of life. We may have forgotten the dark side of the hippie era, when unwed mothers faced social pressure to relinquish their babies to adoption, presumably never to see them again. BIRTH MOTHER includes descriptions of the closed adoption process in Kansas in 1969, and Joanna's experiences at the Salvation Army Home for Unwed Mothers there. This is storytelling that keeps you hooked. The book will blast your heart open and leave you feeling hopeful.