Spotlight and Giveaway: What Was Mine

What if you took a baby… and got away with it?

What if you learned that your mother was really your kidnapper?

In Helen Klein Ross’s startling new novel, WHAT WAS MINE (Gallery Books; January 5, 2016; Trade Paperback Original) she tells the story of Lucy Wakefield —a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment.

All Lucy Wakefield wants is a child. When she finds one sitting alone in an Ikea shopping cart, what she does next will alter the lives of not only those around her, but everyone connected to the child. She manages to keep her secret for over two decades, from everyone including her daughter Mia, her family, coworkers and friends.

After having grown up as Lucy Wakefield’s daughter, Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins. Overcome with confusion and anger she determines not to speak to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution.

Told in alternating perspectives between Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping, WHAT WAS MINE has an emotional resonance that will leave readers breathless. Helen Klein Ross challenges everything, and makes us rethink as Abigail Thomas says, “What is, and is not, forgivable.”

WHAT WAS MINE is incredibly realistic, with each story magnificently intertwined to create a complete picture. This is a captivating tale in which Helen Klein Ross gracefully explores the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

Advanced Praise:

“Helen Klein Ross has written a truly brilliant book. I’m obsessed by the change this book made in my thinking of what is, and what is not, forgivable.”
—Abigail Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of A Three Dog Life

"Not only a terrific, spellbinding read but a fascinating meditation on the choices we make and the way we love."
—Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Rumor

"Helen Klein Ross pulled me into her intimate tale of loss, love, redemption, and forgiveness that had me turning pages long into the night. You’ll fall in love with What Was Mine.”
—Marci Nault, author of The Lake House

Photo by John Gruen

Helen Klein Ross is the author of two novels: What Was Mine (2016) and Making It: A Novel Of Madison Avenue (2013) from Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books and creator of The Traveler’s Vade Mecum, a crowd-sourced poetry anthology forthcoming from Red Hen Press. Her poetry, essays and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times and literary journals and anthologies. Helen spent decades as a writer/creative director at global ad agencies on both coasts. She graduated from Cornell University and received an MFA from The New School. She lives with her husband in NYC and Salisbury, CT.

Visit Helen at her website, Facebook, and Twitter.


Thanks to Gallery Books, we have TWO copies for some lucky US readers! (For another chance, enter Book Mama's giveaway.)

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here.

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US only. Giveaway ends January 10th at midnight EST.