A THEORY OF RELATIVITY

Fans of Mitchard's work will be well satisfied with this domestic drama about adoption and custody. When a young couple dies in a car accident, the stage is set for a tug-of-war between the father's and mother's families for custody of their surviving baby daughter, Keefer. The problem is that both the baby's late mother, Georgia, and Georgia's brother, Gordon, were themselves adopted as babies, making room for a legal battle over whether an adopted sibling is a "blood relative" under Wisconsin law and as eligible to adopt as one sharing DNA. Mitchard's long suit is describing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and Juliette Parker's intelligent, careful, if plain-vanilla, reading suits the story beautifully. B.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]