Digging to America

Title: Digging to America
Author: Anne Tyler
Vintage, 2007 (2006)

Two very different families welcome their adopted children on the same day, on the same airport. With their children's heritage (South Korea) in common, they become friends. Tyler gives us, as she often does, real flesh-and-blood people. We see how they raise their girls and we compare their ways, just as the characters themselves do. None of the methods are perfect and none obviously better than the other. Just like the characters. They come across as people you yourself might know and love. Despite all their faults and irritating quirks, you warm to them. The theme of belonging is obvious: belonging to a family, in a country or even belonging among other people at all.