In 2007, American writer A. M. Homes published her memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter’, which explored her experience of being adopted, of being “found” by her biological family, and of the histories of both her families.

Homes was 31 when she was reunited with her birth parents, having been raised in Maryland by a couple who had recently lost a son because of kidney failure.

“To be adopted is to be adapted” she writes. “To be amputated and sewn back together again. Whether or not you regain function, there will always be scar tissue.”