title: The Sperm Donor's Daughter & Other Stories of Modern Family
author:  Kathryn Trueblood 
description: "I make up terms now, and I think former is nicer than ex: ex-wife, ex-step-brother, ex-step-sister-father-mother. That is if you want to keep them in your permanent collection." The permanent collections of scattered families haunt the six stories of this muted debut about characters who search, mostly in vain, for relationships with which to anchor their lives. A lonely woman mulls over her affectionate but ominous childhood with her brother. A married woman ends the affair that promised love instead of security. A widower makes a second go at marriage in the shadow of his first wife's suicide. The bulk of the book is made up of the title novella, in which a 20-year-old pregnant woman discovers the truth about her father and leaves home in search of her past. Although Trueblood relies too much on roughly indistinguishable, self-pitying points of view and maudlin turns of phrase, she surprises even the impatient reader with the occasional well-observed image: "Wood smoke chugs from the chimneys without making a difference to the sky: gray, gone gray, all gray"?a phrase that describes all-too-well the heart of this collection. <BR>Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
  						    	
  						        	--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
zlib_text: Isabella Trueblood made history reuniting people torn apart by war
  and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett
  carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers.
  Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.
  Lost
  One twin. Ben Mulholland desperately needs a bone marrow donor to save his little girl, Lucy. The
  brother Ben never knew he had is Lucy’s best, maybe only, chance. If he can just track him down...
  Found
  The miracle of hope. Caroline St. Clair has loved Ben forever and she’ll do whatever it takes to
  ensure he doesn’t lose his precious daughter. In the process, old wounds are healed and flames of
  passion reignited. But the future is far from secure.
  Finders Keepers: bringing families together
  
  “I can’t wait any longer to dance with you,” Ben murmured.
  Carolyn drifted into his arms. Pressing her face against his shoulder, she said, “How many times have
  you called to check on Lucy?”
  He laughed, and they moved to the music, a seamless union o