The book tells the true story of a young Canadian woman who gave up her second child for adoption to a French couple she had just met. Today, open adoptions are a familiar phenomenon and a recognized part of family law. But Kathleen, Loesic and Jean-Paul, talking things out in a small flat in London in the 1960s, had nothing to go on but their wits and their trust in one another. "The Invitation" is a moving and dramatic memoir, one that begins in emotional pain and dislocation and ends by reaffirming the healing powers of simple human kindness, love and moral courage. It will have resonance not just for adoptive parents and children but for anyone who has ever forged a family outside conventional societal boundaries. And the elegance and passion of Joan Haggerty's prose marks the book as a literary achievement in its own right.