China Ghosts

Jeff Gammage, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his wife, Christine, set out to turn their two-person household into a family. Getting there meant a long stretch of paperwork and government procedure, along with the emotional highs and lows of waiting.

At the end of that process, in Changsha, a city in Hunan Province where smog hangs heavy, they met Jin Yu, a quiet, reserved little girl who would become their daughter. The couple then had to adjust to a home reshaped by new worries and duties, and to a bond unlike any they had felt before.

The book looks closely at the experience of adopting a child from another country and offers a view of a different culture. At its core, it is a personal account of how a family is made.