Torn from the Heart: An Amazing True Story of a Birthmother's Search for Her Lost Daughter

Although this autobiographical odyssey sometimes slips into gooey, New Age-type bromides and mystical phenomena--Jurgens finally pinpointed her long-lost daughter's location by swinging a pendulum over a map--the story at its core and the author's point-blank honesty in relating it are compelling. As an innocent 19-year-old who had only recently left a convent, Jurgens became pregnant by her first boyfriend, who then revealed that he already had two children. Convinced to give her infant daughter up for adoption, she managed for many years to ignore the emotional trauma that loss had caused. A friend's casual mention of another woman's search for her birthmother triggered what Jurgens calls ``an instantaneous emergence from a dream state,'' which led to the long search and even longer and also difficult period of getting to know her adult daughter once they were reunited. Jurgens, who is a teacher, never minces words, even in describing how her parents discouraged her search, or the day she tracked down her daughter's father only to find that he was a married philanderer who propositioned her almost immediately. (Dec.)