A Novel That Could Easily Pass as Nonfiction

A review of Jeff Hoffmann’s, Other People’s Children

I first met RJ or “Jeff ” Hoffmann when we shared the stage at Books and Brunch in November 2022, an event sponsored by the Assistance League Chicagoland West. Of the three authors chosen to speak about their recently released works, Hoffmann and I had something important in common: adoption. Not only did our books share an adoption theme, but we found that we are both members of the adoption world. Jeff is an adoptive father and I’m an adult adoptee.

When Jeff asked me to participate in an author panel in April with other authors who have written books with adoption themes, I said “Yes!” Jeff and I, along with best-selling novelist Lisa Wingate and author/journalist Gabrielle Glaser shared a Zoom screen with a moderator. The discussion was facilitated by Anderson’s Bookshops in Naperville. The onscreen dialogue was riveting, but so was the chat window. There, participants held an ongoing, sometimes heated discussion about open and closed adoption, the right to know versus the right to information, and the pluses and minuses of each perspective in the adoption triangle.

Jeff Hoffmann’s debut work Other People’s Children is a thrilling novel, but it could easily pass as a book of stirring nonfiction. It’s a story about open adoption and the battle of three mothers who struggle to satisfy their wants and needs.

The main characters, Gail and John Durbin, moved to the suburbs of Chicago with the hopes of starting a family. After several miscarriages, the Durbin’s decide to go through the rigors of open adoption. Their social worker, Paige, helps them build a prospective adoptive parent profile which is submitted to scores of potential birth mothers. Once birth mother, Carli, selects the Durbin’s as the parents for her unborn child, Gail becomes active in Carli’s pregnancy and in her personal life.  When Gail and John bring home their adopted daughter, Maya, she heals some of the wounds in their fractured marriage.

The story hit its first crescendo when Paige, the adoption social worker, can’t find teenage birth mother, Carli, to sign the adoption consent forms. With the threat of the young birth mom reclaiming their new child Maya, both the Durbin’s and Carli’s own mother, Marla, proceed to make disturbing decisions.

These characters and the circumstances in which they find themselves beg the pivotal question on which the book stands:

What measures would you take to keep your family intact?

Tensions abound in Hoffmann’s debut novel. There is the undercurrent between the adoptive parents, Gail and John Durbin, and the mother-daughter conflict between Carli and Marla, who disagrees with Carli’s plan to place her first grandchild into an open adoption. And then there’s social worker, Paige, who strives to remain neutral, but who has a hidden past which comes into play at the end.

With so many new books being released, what makes RJ Hoffmann’s novel Other People’s Children one that you should pick up?

The characters are well-crafted and believable; their wants and needs are realistic and profound; and the plot is relevant and timely. You will find yourself rooting for each of the main characters to get what they want. And making the final choice as to who should win out will rattle your sense of right and wrong. As an adult adoptee from the closed adoption era, my lived experience determined my selection. I wanted Maya to go through life with a firm sense of identity and belonging. I rooted for the birth mother, Carli.

Filled with heart wrenching twists and turns, this book kept me up at night. I found it satisfying and worth the lost sleep. Kudos to Hoffmann for giving us an inside look at the joys and perils of open adoption and writing a story that could easily have been someone’s truth.

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