The many-sided triangle: Adoption in Australia (2001) by Australian academics Audrey Marshall & Margaret McDonald is a history of adoption in Australia, the most comprehensive account until then. It makes the point that an adoption affects a number of people, relatives & friends as well as birth & adoptive parents & the adoptee.

The book begins with asking why adoption was popular until the controversy of the 1970s & examines Australia’s laws & practices.

Divided into a total of 12 chapters, the book includes both birth & adoptive mothers, ‘shadowy fathers’, & inter-country adoptions. It also examines adoption from the perspective of adoptees.