Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye

Award-winning and best-selling author Lois Lowry explores issues surrounding adoption in this poignant young adult novel.

Natalie Armstrong has everything: she’s smart and beautiful, has the perfect boyfriend, early acceptance to college, and a loving family. But the summer she turns seventeen, her search for identity leads her to finally ask some unanswered questions: Who are her biological parents and why did they give her up when she was born?

These questions take her on a journey from the deep woods of Maine to the streets of New York City, from the pages of old phone books and a tattered yearbook photo to the realization that she might actually meet her biological mother face-to-face.

• Coming of Age Story: On the cusp of adulthood, Natalie must confront the questions of her past to understand her future, a journey that tests her relationship with the only family she’s ever known.
• A Search for Answers: Armed with a tattered yearbook photo and clues from old phone books, Natalie travels from her small town in Maine to the bustling streets of New York City to find her birth mother.
• Unraveling Family Secrets: Natalie’s quest uncovers a hidden history and a teenage mother she never knew, forcing her to redefine what family truly means.
• A Poignant Mother-Daughter Story: As Natalie prepares to meet the stranger who gave her life, she must brace for a reunion that could bring either closure or more questions.