Adoption Reckonings: For Three Refrigerators and a Washing Machine (Paperback or Softback)

This book presents a new theater play, For Three Refrigerators and a Washing Machine, along with a thorough introduction that provides historical context and theoretical framing. The play with the enigmatic title tells the poignant and forgotten stories of international child adoptions from Greece in the 1950s and the 1960s. It offers an in-depth exploration of the first postwar mass international adoption movement, unveiling the emotional and even existential challenges faced by those involved. Based on an authentic playscript, the book creates awareness about what has not been said, should be said, but still cannot be said about the losses involved in the permanent uprooting of children and teenagers. It tackles the primal questions of “Where do I come from?” and “What happened to the child I relinquished for adoption abroad?” And why did nobody foresee that adopted children become adopted adults who ask critical questions about origins, procedures, and aftercare?
Thus, the book boldly reflects on the complexities and profound losses associated with displacing children and perpetuating taboos. Also, it reveals multiple connections to similar adoption movements worldwide, which include countries (and histories) of origin such as Ireland, South Korea, Vietnam, and several states in Central and South America. This thought-provoking book poses critical questions about identity and belonging that far exceed the Greek setting and continue to be relevant today.

Gonda Van Steen holds the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature in the Department of Classics at King’s College London, where she also directs the Centre for Hellenic Studies. She is the author of many articles and six books. The book most pertinent to this recent writing and performance project is Adoption, Memory, and Cold War Greece (2019). Van Steen is a co-leader of the campaign called Nostos for Greek Adoptees.