In 1997 journalist Karin Evans walked into an orphanage in southern China and met her new daughter, a beautiful one-year-old baby girl. In this fateful moment Evans became part of a profound, increasingly common human drama that links abandoned Chinese girls with foreigners who have traveled many miles to complete their families. At once a compelling personal narrative and an evocative portrait of contemporary China, The Lost Daughters of China has also served as an invaluable guide for thousands of readers as they navigated the process of adopting from China. However, much has changed in terms of the Chinese government?s policies on adoption since this book was originally published and in this revised and updated edition Evans addresses these developments. Also new to this edition is a riveting chapter in which she describes her return to China in 2000 to adopt her second daughter who was nearly three at the time. Many of the first girls to be adopted from China are now in the teens (China only opened its doors to adoption in the 1990s), and this edition includes accounts of their experiences growing up in the US and, in some cases, of returning to China in search of their roots. Illuminating the real-life stories behind the statistics, The Lost Daughters of China is an unforgettable account of the red thread that winds form China?s orphanages to loving families around the globe.

カリン・エヴァンスによる本作は、単なる養子縁組の記録を超え、現代中国の歪みが生んだ「喪失」と「再生」を巡る壮大な叙事詩です。ジャーナリストの鋭い観察眼と母の慈愛が交錯する文体は、社会制度に翻弄される名もなき少女たちの命に光を当て、読者の魂を激しく揺さぶります。運命の赤い糸が導く、国境を越えた愛の深淵に触れる一冊です。 改訂版で綴られる娘たちの葛藤は、アイデンティティという深遠な問いを突きつけます。失われたルーツと新たな家族の間で揺れる姿は、血縁を超えた絆の本質を浮き彫りにする文学的な重厚さを湛えています。本書は、一家族の歩みを通して分断された世界を愛がどう繋ぐかを証明する、希望と鎮魂のドキュメントなのです。