Books by Susan Kiyo Ito

“Susan Ito’s memoir tackles an important subject—how to know oneself when information key to one’s identity is deliberately withheld by law from a class of people. Ito is an adoptee who does not have the legal right to the files of her birth mother and by extension biological father. Ito is exploring this fundamental question of identity, who she is, who is her family, over the course of the decades that she spends tracking down her birth mother…Susan Ito has written a really compelling story. She moves through time so well! The book covers decades of her life as she searches for her birth mother, but the story never flags, each chapter moves the story forward, and the reader knows what’s at stake emotionally.” Read more...

The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist

May-lee Chai, Short Story Writer