Author event! Rebecca J. Sanford x Hadley Leggett

Zibby’s Bookshop is thrilled to host Rebecca J. Sanford and Hadley Leggett! Rebecca and Hadley will be celebrating the launch of their novels The Disapeared and All They Ask is Everything!

About the books:

The Disapeared: Inspired by the real mothers and grandmothers who spoke out against Argentina’s military dictatorship, The Disappeared is an award-winning debut about identity, family secrets, and those who endured decades of hardship to expose the truth.

In 1976 Buenos Aires, Lorena Ledesma is a housewife with dangerous secrets living under Argentina’s rising military dictatorship. When she and her husband are torn from their home by the paramilitary in the middle of the night, their two-year-old son is left behind with Lorena’s mother, Esme. There’s never any record of the arrest. Desperate to locate Lorena, Esme joins an underground group of mothers who are investigating the disappearances of their own missing children. But when they make a devastating discovery–that several of their kidnapped daughters have given birth in prison–a new kind of pursuit begins: the search for their stolen grandchildren.

Nearly three decades later, thousands of miles away, American adoptee Rachel Sprague learns she has a biological brother from another country–somewhere she has never visited. But the truth goes far deeper than the results of a DNA test, and revealing her origins will expose painful family secrets that could put Rachel’s loved ones in jeopardy.

A heart-wrenching drama that spans thirty years, The Disappeared is inspired by the true stories of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an extraordinary group of women who, for more than forty-five years, have been searching for children of the “disappeared”–those captured as dissidents during Argentina’s Dirty War.

All They Ask is Everything: In this hopeful debut about the silent struggles of motherhood, three very different women want custody of the same two little girls—and learn they have more in common than the children they’re fighting for.

Determined to be a better mother than her own, Hannah has devoted her life to her daughters. She ignores her increasing exhaustion and isolation as a widowed mom—until a disastrous mistake lands the girls in foster care.

Julie is single and lonely and dreams of being a mother. After infertility issues lead her to foster parenting, she falls head over heels for Hannah’s daughters. The more she bonds with these sweet, precocious girls, the more she worries about their previous home life and becomes intent on finding a way to keep them.

Recently forced into retirement, Elaine is devastated by the way her daughter, Hannah, has shut her out. When she discovers her granddaughters are in foster care, she resolves to rescue them from the system: her one chance at a parenting do-over.

Each woman thinks she’s the best possible mother, but none understands the full truth. Old hurts, long-held secrets, and budding new relationships collide as they fight for the girls who could make them a family.

About the speakers:

Rebecca J. Sanford is the author of The Disappeared, recipient of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Rising Star Award. She received her MA in international affairs from the New School in New York City. Originally from New York, Rebecca now lives in Florida with her family.

Hadley Leggett is a novelist and science writer whose winding career path has included degrees in medicine, biochemistry, Spanish, and journalism. After moving all over the United States during her childhood, she now lives in Seattle with her husband and three children, as well as her parents, three cats, and an ever-rotating troop of foster kittens. All They Ask Is Everything is her first novel.