Overview

May you always feel at home. After deciding not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, try to adopt a baby through foster care. Knowing that the system aims for reunification with the birth family, they open their home to a flurry of social workers who question, evaluate, and prepare them to welcome a child into their lives—even if it most likely means giving that child up. After years of starts and stops, the phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl, Coco, in urgent need of a foster family. Sarah and Eric bring this newborn stranger home. ‘You were never ours,’ Sarah tells her, ‘yet we belong to each other.’ A love letter to Coco and to the countless others like her, Stranger Care shares Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother: in this case, not just a vulnerable infant, but also the birth mother who loves the child too. Coco’s story is a reminder that we depend on family, and that family can take many different forms. Sarah Sentilles, author of the acclaimed Draw Your Weapons, brings her powerful prose and fearless compassion to an intimate subject with universal concerns: What does it mean to mother? How can we care for and protect one another? And how do we ensure a better future for life on this planet?

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9781922330956

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Reviews

'This generous book burns with an inextinguishable vulnerability that will scorch your heart.' * Gina Rushton * 'Sentilles beautifully and profoundly expands our understanding of what it is to mother, to tend, to love. Her prose has a clear-eyed quality that is truly breathtaking...She reminds us of our shared humanity through this beautiful and brutal story...I doubt I will read a more profound and powerful book for a long while. This is the kind of book that alters you, makes you kinder, opens your heart up.' * Jaclyn Crupi * 'Beautifully written and elegantly structured, Stranger Care is both gripping and meditative. Sarah Sentilles invites us not only to think about our vulnerability and interdependence, but to feel them. This is a book for everyone because it goes to the heart of the human condition. It is a book about love.' * Peter Mares * 'How far can we extend our care and compassion? What does it take to love people who stand in the way of our desires? Full of the urgency of mother-love, Stranger Care is heartrending: at once harrowing and tender, bruising and wise.' * Jessie Cole * 'Be warned: your heart will be altered by Stranger Care. Sarah Sentilles has written a book that the whole damn world needs to read-a book on caring, on radical empathy, on how to hold rage and grief and pure love simultaneously within the body. In language that strikes and soars and sings, Sentilles honours the child at the centre of Stranger Care. In doing so, she shows us all how we might better look after each other.' * Kate Mildenhall * 'This book is sublime in its craft and its heart. Sentilles' power is not only that her message about our shared humanity comes as revelation-that our personal and collective survival depends on converting pain into love. Her power is that she leads by example in this stunning book.' * Sarah Krasnostein * 'An illuminating and heart-wrenching look at the foster-care system...Sarah's personal experience as a foster parent, combined with her reportorial examination of a deeply flawed system, makes Stranger Care a transformative revelation.' * Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black * 'Breathtaking and heartbreaking and smart and hopeful...I less read Stranger Care than inhaled it, in the first place because I genuinely could not put it down but mostly because it felt like this story entered my bloodstream and changed me...This is a memoir for everyone.' * Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is * 'A book that calls us to redefine what it means to have and make a family, to expand our understanding of what and who belongs, and to care more and better for those around us...It broke my heart wide open in the best possible way.' * Lacy M. Johnson, author of The Reckonings * 'A gripping and beautiful memoir about marriage, family, bureaucracy, community, heartbreak and hope. With wisdom and honesty, Sarah Sentilles shares a personal story that is also a story about how we live...and why we must find new ways to love and care for one another.' * Ben Rhodes, author of The World as It Is * 'This is the only book about parenting that I would recommend to anyone, because it strikes at the essential, complicated and heartbreaking core of what parents do every moment of every day: love...No matter what.' * Emily Rapp Black, author of The Still Point of the Turning World * 'A beautiful, harrowing, and profound memoir about what it means to love and to mother, to belong and let go...I found myself holding my breath as I read...I love this book so much it hurts. It's a powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild *

'An illuminating and heart-wrenching look at the foster-care system...Sarah's personal experience as a foster parent, combined with her reportorial examination of a deeply flawed system, makes Stranger Care a transformative revelation.' * Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black * 'Breathtaking and heartbreaking and smart and hopeful...I less read Stranger Care than inhaled it, in the first place because I genuinely could not put it down but mostly because it felt like this story entered my bloodstream and changed me...This is a memoir for everyone.' * Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is * 'A book that calls us to redefine what it means to have and make a family, to expand our understanding of what and who belongs, and to care more and better for those around us...It broke my heart wide open in the best possible way.' * Lacy M. Johnson, author of The Reckonings * 'A gripping and beautiful memoir about marriage, family, bureaucracy, community, heartbreak and hope. With wisdom and honesty, Sarah Sentilles shares a personal story that is also a story about how we live...and why we must find new ways to love and care for one another.' * Ben Rhodes, author of The World as It Is * 'This is the only book about parenting that I would recommend to anyone, because it strikes at the essential, complicated and heartbreaking core of what parents do every moment of every day: love...No matter what.' * Emily Rapp Black, author of The Still Point of the Turning World * 'A beautiful, harrowing, and profound memoir about what it means to love and to mother, to belong and let go...I found myself holding my breath as I read...I love this book so much it hurts. It's a powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild *

'Be warned: your heart will be altered by Stranger Care. Sarah Sentilles has written a book that the whole damn world needs to read-a book on caring, on radical empathy, on how to hold rage and grief and pure love simultaneously within the body. In language that strikes and soars and sings, Sentilles honours the child at the centre of Stranger Care. In doing so, she shows us all how we might better look after each other.' * Kate Mildenhall * 'This book is sublime in its craft and its heart. Sentilles' power is not only that her message about our shared humanity comes as revelation-that our personal and collective survival depends on converting pain into love. Her power is that she leads by example in this stunning book.' * Sarah Krasnostein * 'An illuminating and heart-wrenching look at the foster-care system...Sarah's personal experience as a foster parent, combined with her reportorial examination of a deeply flawed system, makes Stranger Care a transformative revelation.' * Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black * 'Breathtaking and heartbreaking and smart and hopeful...I less read Stranger Care than inhaled it, in the first place because I genuinely could not put it down but mostly because it felt like this story entered my bloodstream and changed me...This is a memoir for everyone.' * Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is * 'A book that calls us to redefine what it means to have and make a family, to expand our understanding of what and who belongs, and to care more and better for those around us...It broke my heart wide open in the best possible way.' * Lacy M. Johnson, author of The Reckonings * 'A gripping and beautiful memoir about marriage, family, bureaucracy, community, heartbreak and hope. With wisdom and honesty, Sarah Sentilles shares a personal story that is also a story about how we live...and why we must find new ways to love and care for one another.' * Ben Rhodes, author of The World as It Is * 'This is the only book about parenting that I would recommend to anyone, because it strikes at the essential, complicated and heartbreaking core of what parents do every moment of every day: love...No matter what.' * Emily Rapp Black, author of The Still Point of the Turning World * 'A beautiful, harrowing, and profound memoir about what it means to love and to mother, to belong and let go...I found myself holding my breath as I read...I love this book so much it hurts. It's a powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild *

'A beautiful, harrowing, and profound memoir about what it means to love and to mother, to belong and let go...I found myself holding my breath as I read...I love this book so much it hurts. It's a powerful, heartbreaking, necessary masterpiece.' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild * 'This is the only book about parenting that I would recommend to anyone, because it strikes at the essential, complicated and heartbreaking core of what parents do every moment of every day: love...No matter what.' * Emily Rapp Black, author of The Still Point of the Turning World * 'A gripping and beautiful memoir about marriage, family, bureaucracy, community, heartbreak and hope. With wisdom and honesty, Sarah Sentilles shares a personal story that is also a story about how we live...and why we must find new ways to love and care for one another.' * Ben Rhodes, author of The World as It Is * 'A book that calls us to redefine what it means to have and make a family, to expand our understanding of what and who belongs, and to care more and better for those around us...It broke my heart wide open in the best possible way.' * Lacy M. Johnson, author of The Reckonings * 'Breathtaking and heartbreaking and smart and hopeful...I less read Stranger Care than inhaled it, in the first place because I genuinely could not put it down but mostly because it felt like this story entered my bloodstream and changed me...This is a memoir for everyone.' * Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is * 'An illuminating and heart-wrenching look at the foster-care system...Sarah's personal experience as a foster parent, combined with her reportorial examination of a deeply flawed system, makes Stranger Care a transformative revelation.' * Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black * 'This book is sublime in its craft and its heart. Sentilles' power is not only that her message about our shared humanity comes as revelation-that our personal and collective survival depends on converting pain into love. Her power is that she leads by example in this stunning book.' * Sarah Krasnostein * 'Be warned: your heart will be altered by Stranger Care. Sarah Sentilles has written a book that the whole damn world needs to read-a book on caring, on radical empathy, on how to hold rage and grief and pure love simultaneously within the body. In language that strikes and soars and sings, Sentilles honours the child at the centre of Stranger Care. In doing so, she shows us all how we might better look after each other.' * Kate Mildenhall * 'How far can we extend our care and compassion? What does it take to love people who stand in the way of our desires? Full of the urgency of mother-love, Stranger Care is heartrending: at once harrowing and tender, bruising and wise.' * Jessie Cole * 'Beautifully written and elegantly structured, Stranger Care is both gripping and meditative. Sarah Sentilles invites us not only to think about our vulnerability and interdependence, but to feel them. This is a book for everyone because it goes to the heart of the human condition. It is a book about love.' * Peter Mares * 'Sentilles beautifully and profoundly expands our understanding of what it is to mother, to tend, to love. Her prose has a clear-eyed quality that is truly breathtaking...She reminds us of our shared humanity through this beautiful and brutal story...I doubt I will read a more profound and powerful book for a long while. This is the kind of book that alters you, makes you kinder, opens your heart up.' * Jaclyn Crupi * 'This generous book burns with an inextinguishable vulnerability that will scorch your heart.' * Gina Rushton * 'Heart-searing...With a sharp eye for the details that fill their days with joy, counterweighted by the sorrows that bring the couple to their knees, Sentilles uses the sheer power of her writing to lift their story above the failures of flawed adults and to remind us of the human heart's limitless capacity for hope.' * BookPage (starred review) * 'If you don't know Sarah Sentilles you should seek her out. Go read her earlier books. She's a writer of uncommonly beautiful creative nonfiction her pages filled with grace and honesty...The honesty and humanity in this book is astonishing.' * Readings * 'Gut-wrenching.' * New York Times *

Author Information

Sarah Sentilles is the author of Draw Your Weapons, Breaking Up with God, A Church of Her Own and Taught by America. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Divinity School, she lives in Idaho’s Wood River Valley.

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