Raising a Thief

A Memoir

By: Paul Podolsky

Narrated by: Brian Kelsey

A remarkable, true story about raising an unusually challenging child, in this case one who struggles to reciprocate love. Unfolding over nearly 20 years, Raising a Thief focuses on the struggles of a Russian orphan Sonya, mistreated early in life and ultimately diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, and the family that adopted and tried to raise her.

Sonya's story will allow the listener to better understand the immeasurable impact of a caregiver early in a child's life and also grasp why some bounce back from terrible childhood adversity and struggle.

©2020 Paul Podolsky (P)2021 Paul Podolsky

Amazing book

Raising a Thief is a brilliant memoir with a difficult subject. The author has done a fabulous job of laying it bare. Paul and Marina Podolsky adopted a 16-month-old toddler named Sonya from Russia. Over time, they began to realize that something wasn’t quite right with Sonya’s interactions with people. Eventually they understood that Sonya suffers from Reactive Attachment Disorder, a condition that makes it very hard for a child to connect with anyone, including their family.

The book describes their phenomenal efforts to get Sonya the help she needed to become a functioning member of their family and humanity. I admire Paul’s willingness to be completely honest about the frustration and hopelessness of dealing with a child’s psychopathic behavior, including the impact on his marriage, his mildly autistic son, and their friendships. Paul and Marina were also forced to deal with their own childhood traumas in their efforts to help Sonya.

Another reviewer noticed some audio glitches. I also noticed them and reached out to the author. He quickly fixed them - they should no longer be an issue.

I highly recommend this book.

Great story

I loved this story and the vulnerability of him sharing it. It was brave to share something so personal - that didn’t have a happy ending or a trial overcome. The audio was honestly pretty terrible (my guess is that it wasn’t professionally recorded?) but the content made it worth listening to.

Did Sonya receive a cut of the profits from this? Doubtful

A disturbing read, where the author mines his own daughters private traumas for his own “memoir.” A meandering and nasal attempt at assuaging the authors (justified) guilt dressed as a saintlike description of two self righteous people. While I have empathy for parents who adopted children at a time prior to RAD being a well known diagnosis, most of this takes places in near present time…and regardless, that in itself in no way makes these “parents” to Sonya any less culpable for the repetitive loop of their own one-note control method that unfolded in increasing volume with each chapter.

Final chapter repeats the same message mentioned elsewhere in this book, basically: “Guess we were just special strong people as opposed to all of those other weak siblings/Sonya/etc of ours who failed etc” was also such an obvious tell (ironic bc both parents pride themselves in their ability to “read” people).

Also I picked up on an odd Christian undertone? Esp in the insistence of control, lack of true accountability! You constantly abandoned a child who obviously was screaming I can’t fucking trust you not to abandon me and for minor in true terms in the context of how it was presented. Pay Sonya and apologize to her. GROSS