We Were Once a Family
A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
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We Were Once a Family
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Narrated by:
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Suehyla El-Attar
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Written by:
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Roxanna Asgarian
About this listen
National Book Critics Circle Award—Winner, 2023
Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year 2023
L.A. Times Book Prize—Finalist, 2023
Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2023
Short-listed, Helen Bernstein Book Award, 2024
Long-listed, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023
Long-listed, Carnegie Medal, 2024
Long-listed, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 2023
Long-listed, CPL: Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, 2023
Long-listed, Audible.com Best of the Year, 2023
Long-listed, Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2023
One of Literary Hub's most anticipated books of 2023
"Narrator Suehyla El-Attar gives an impassioned performance that enhances the touching, terrifying tale of social injustice and systemic failure. Her delivery is compelling and clear, evoking a captivating listening experience from this true-crime tragedy."—Library Journal
The shocking, deeply reported story of a murder-suicide that claimed the lives of six children—and a searing indictment of the American foster care system.
On March 26, 2018, rescue workers discovered a crumpled SUV and the bodies of two women and several children at the bottom of a cliff beside the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators soon concluded that the crash was a murder-suicide, but there was more to the story: Jennifer and Sarah Hart, it turned out, were a white married couple who had adopted the six Black children from two different Texas families in 2006 and 2008. Behind the family's loving facade, however, was a pattern of abuse and neglect that went ignored as the couple withdrew the children from school and moved across the country. It soon became apparent that the State of Texas knew very little about the two individuals to whom it had given custody of six children—with fateful consequences.
In the manner of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family and other classic works of investigative journalism, Roxanna Asgarian’s We Were Once a Family is a revelation of vulnerable lives; it is also a shattering exposé of the foster care and adoption systems that produced this tragedy. As a journalist in Houston, Asgarian became the first reporter to put the children’s birth families at the center of the story. We follow the author as she runs up against the intransigence of a state agency that removes tens of thousands of kids from homes each year in the name of child welfare, while often failing to consider alternatives. Her reporting uncovers persistent racial biases and corruption as children of color are separated from birth parents without proper cause. The result is a riveting narrative and a deeply reported indictment of a system that continues to fail America’s most vulnerable children while upending the lives of their families.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2023 Roxanna Asgarian (P)2023 Macmillan AudioWhat the critics say
2023, National Book Critics Circle Award - Nominee, Short-listed
2023, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023, L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist, Short-listed
2023, NPR Best Book of the Year, Long-listed
2023, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2024, Carnegie Medal - Winner
2023, CPL Chicago Public Library Best of the Best, Long-listed
2023, L.A. Times Book Prize - Winner
2023, Audible.com Best of the Year, Long-listed
2023, National Book Critics Circle Award - Winner
2024, Helen Bernstein Book Award, Short-listed
2023, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
2023, Washington Post Best Books of the Year, Long-listed
"Asgarian debuts with a comprehensive and searing look at systemic issues within the foster care and adoption systems . . . Emotional and frequently enraging, it adds up to a blistering indictment . . . Sensitive, impassioned, and eye-opening, this is a must-read."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Roxanna Asgarian’s stunning debut, We Were Once A Family, paints a stark picture of the systemic failures of our child welfare system. Asgarian shows the myriad ways in which the very institutions charged with our children's safety often exacerbate their predicaments—and sometimes, as with the Hart family, can end in unmitigated and unnecessary tragedy. This book is sobering, but also urgent, advocating for change with the strength of a howl in the wild.”—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises
"Roxanna Asgarian could have written another sensational account of the six Black children murdered by the white couple who adopted them. Instead, We Were Once A Family is not only the most in-depth investigation of the tragedy, but also a devastating exposé of the unjust and inhumane child welfare system that caused it to happen. Asgarian shatters the dominant rosy adoption narrative popularized by the government and media by telling the forgotten experiences of foster children, adoptees, and birth families—all traumatized by the forcible separation from their loved ones. This riveting book will raise public awareness of the urgent need to end our disastrous approach to struggling families by radically reimagining child welfare policies and building community-based supports that truly keep children safe."—Dorothy Roberts, author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—And How Abolition Can Build A Safer World