'Bastards is the true story of how my six biological siblings and I were adopted by five different families, grew up in homes from Oklahoma City to the Jersey Shore, and eventually found one another again. At its core it's a love story about the most absurd, primal, inescapable relationship 80 per cent of us will ever have - the relationship we have with our siblings.'
Mary King grew up knowing that her parents had given away some of her siblings as babies. However, like many other aspects of her strange and tumultuous life, it didn't seem that unusual. Cut to her second year at university when she received an e-mail out of nowhere from a woman saying 'I think I might be your sister'.
Mary's irreverent, take-no-prisoners account of reuniting with her sister and then five other siblings she hadn't known about is told with surprising compassion and a willingness to confront harsh facts and complex emotional realities head on. Her loyalty and love for her siblings is fierce - and immediately recognizable to anyone who has family bonds.
As Mary describes the problems and joys of her family, it becomes clear no matter how it's constructed - or deconstructed - family is something instantly recognizable to anyone who's ever looked around the dinner table and wondered how such a weird, but fabulous, collection of people ended up together.
This candid, funny and sometimes heartbreaking memoir about seven siblings separated as children finding one another again as adults marks the arrival of an unforgettable voice.
