Days You Were Mine

De: Clare Leslie Hall

Narrado por: Dominic Thorburn, Cassie Layton

From the author of Broken Country, a captivating drama about how one man’s quest to uncover the truth about his adoption changes everything he knows about love, loss, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

Luke and Hannah live a happy and stable life in London, working in jobs they love as they prepare for the arrival of their first child, Samuel. All his life, Luke has known he was adopted, but he’s never felt the need to seek out his birth mother—until he becomes a father himself.

Spurred by the connection he feels to his son, Luke’s search leads him to his birth mother Alice. Their first encounter is surreal, a sharp prick that barely scratches the surface of a painful past that neither of them has fully confronted.

Alice sinks into memories of her life as a young artist in 1970s London, and of her tragic whirlwind romance with an enigmatic musician who would become Luke’s father. Meanwhile, Luke spirals as he comes face to face with his feelings of abandonment that he worked so hard to bury. But at least Alice seems keen to make up for lost time by looking after Samuel—until her doting grandmother act takes a sinister turn for the worse.

As the truth of who Alice is and the story behind her heartbreaking decision to give up her baby come to light, she and Luke must reckon with the sacrifices they’ve made in the pursuit of love and belonging.

©2025 Clare Leslie Hall (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Adoption TV

Well written story about the feelings of adoption for baby, birth family and adoptive family. Parts were sad but ending resolved the issues. I usually only read for entertainment but I am glad I read this book & I would recommend to others.

Outstanding

So well written and performed. I love the way the story is written from the then & now perspective. It’s plain spoken, with no forced metaphors, no trying to sound clever to make it interesting. The characters are real and relatable, the story is compelling, and pace is just right. When I wasn’t able to listen, the story was on my mind. Not so much as a book that needed to be finish, but a situation of a friend or relative you want to see work out for the best. The narration was outstanding, hardly narration more like a movie, only in this case with the sound turned up and the picture turned off and my mind supplying the visuals. A great listen!

Heartfelt

The story is poignant. The scenes later in the story, the explanation for everything if you will, are really well described and deeply felt. Voices of the narrators are a personal taste and I wasn’t as drawn to them this time.

The idea that adoption is a terrible thing

I didn’t like how the author called Alice the real mother, but she is the birth mother. As a parent of our adopted son, who has known he was adopted since the beginning, and recently found his birth mother with our support, is the most well adjusted person with no issues of abandonment or depression.