Unknown Bodies

The dramatic story of one woman's determined surprising search for her birth parents and commitment to creating her own family 

Janine Veto's "Unknown Bodies: Mothers Daughters and Adoption" is a brutally and beautifully honest story that begins on a Villa Park, Illinois, playground when her playmate calls her "bastard." Until then she thought being adopted was happily special. Her life had been privileged, secure and typically 1950s American: Dad, mom, brother, church on Sunday, lakeside summers in northern Wisconsin. Suddenly Veto felt she was "misplaced." The need to find her so-called "real parents" grew. It was a need that would take decades as well as drive, cunning, a little thievery and a lot of spunk. It also was a need fueled by alcohol, sex and disillusion.

Set in the arts and philanthropy worlds of Chicago and New York as well as Iowa farm country, a Denver sports bars and a Midwestern university town, it is memoir of a Boomer in search of her identity in the rapidly changing landscape of what it means to be adopted in America.

Ultimately, the message of "Unknown Bodies" is love; the unconditional love of Veto's adoptive parents, accepting and forgiving love for her broken "real parents", and the bonding love between Veto and her own adopted daughter. 

Unknown Bodies

Mothers Daughters and Adoption

Table of Contents

Part One: Don´t Ask

The Dream in a Garden

The Graduate

Part Two: Subversions

The Catholics

The Family

The State

Part Three: Reunions

Six Flights Up

Fatherś Day

Heartland

Part Four: Generation

My Turn(ing)

Annunciation

Thanksgiving

Sanctuary

The Real Estate Section

Mandate of Heaven

The Middle Kingdom

Laid to Rest

Epilogue: Autumn 2017

The Blood Garden