Losing Isaiah

Three-year-old Isaiah has two mothers: and they both want him.
Margaret Lewin adopted Isaiah as a newborn - and she and her husband, Charles, give the boy and their precocious preteen daughter, Hannah, all the love a child could want, and everything that money can buy. They live in a lovely Upper West Side Manhattan high rise; send Isaiah to private day care; and give him all the privileges of their white upper-middle-class life-style. But can even the most loving, caring white family be responsible for raising a black child?
Selma Richards is the boy's natural mother. At his birth, she was illiterate, unemployed, and a crack addict. Giving up her son was the best thing for both of them - at the time. Now Selma has weaned herself off drugs, has a responsible job caring for another couple's child, and is learning to read. She's not rich and she doesn't live in the best neighborhood, but she's healed herself. And now she knows what's best for her son.
With all the drama and intensity of such beloved novels as Kramer vs. Kramer and The Good Mother, Losing Isaiah raises one of the most complex and emotional moral questions of our times. Seth Margolis forces you to understand the pain and conflict these two women are feeling, and keeps you rooting for them both, until the inevitable heartrending conclusion in which one mother ends up losing her son. It is a warm and intelligent novel of love and redemption, tragedy and loss - and motherhood.