SOFIA'S STORY

“If heirloom seeds are ‘shattered’ before planting, they will never grow.” MAURA/CLU GALLAGHER draws a comparison of the garden variety of seeds to the ‘seeds’ of humanity’ in her 20th Century biographical fiction, SOFIA’S STORY THE SHATTERED SEEDS. A German woman, (Sofia) whose traditionalist father had arranged her marriage to the neighborhood police officer—turned Nazi – runs away from her evil husband in 1944 – a flight that had shattered her life and caused her to disavow her German heritage. In 2008 when the novel opens, a young writer (Janene) is traveling to Pittsburgh to interview Sofia, now a famous American writer of children's books, but also the founder of a large chain of worldwide adoption centers. Janene is writing an article on ‘Adoption’ but is also hoping that Sofia will help her find her own biological parents, an African American soldier, and a Vietnamese woman. The chance meeting of the two writers affords them the opportunity to share the most intimate details of their lives as they explore their roots. Although it is fiction, the historical events of the times in which they had lived propel the story forward, making the characters seem real, validating the story.