"This provocative examination of transnational adoption breaks new ground with a nuanced analysis of how agency and power shape the adoption process. Based on interviews with black South African 'birth' or first mothers, Finnish adoptive parents, and South African social workers, Riitta Hogbacka provides a compelling account of the complex circumstances in which first mothers turn to transnational adoption as a way of caring for their children. A powerful exploration of the dynamics of inequality in transnational adoption, Global Families, Inequality and Transnational Adoption: The De-Kinning of First Mothers is an important contribution to scholarship on adoption, debates about adoption policy, and research on the ways more inclusive approaches to family may transform adoption practice." (Barbara Yngvesson, Hampshire College, USA) "Riitta Hogbacka's new book cements the author's reputation as a critically important voice in contemporary adoption discourse. Hogbacka provides some voices, perspectives, and situations of first mothers, which are juxtaposed to those of adoptive parents, underscoring the profound inequalities which form the contexts for transnational adoption. While focusing on transnational adoption, Hogbacka's work contributes to the growing impetus to reconceive adoption itself, by questioning the full severance model predominate in some legal systems, and describing contrasting cultural models of family and parentage. Hogbacka's work should set some of the premises and foundations for future adoption research practice and discourse." (David Smolin, Samford University, USA).