During political upheaval in Argentina, thousands of people were disappeared. Among these were hundreds of pregnant women. After giving birth, their children were given to others and the women were never heard from again. This is the story of their mothers, who protested their disappearance and demanded answers.

What happened in Argentina was utterly heartbreaking. However, I found hope and resilience in the mothers. Their acts of protest, and determination to find their missing children and grandchildren showed such courage and dedication. I also found their pursuit of science to find answers amazing. DNA testing did not exist when their children and grandchildren disappeared. Yet they pioneered the new approaches and never gave up. Overall, a must read!

I absolutely loved this book. From the first pages, I felt the weight of history pressing in, and though the beginning was a bit rough to track, the payoff was incredible. I appreciated how deeply researched and emotionally gripping the story was—I felt completely immersed in the lives of Patricia, Rosa, and the Abuelas. I found myself in awe of the strength of these women, the relentless pursuit of justice, and the heartbreak of stolen children and shattered families. I admired the way the book balanced historical depth with the raw, personal stories of survival and resilience. The investigative twists made it feel almost like a mystery, yet it was grounded in devastating reality. I felt every moment of triumph and sorrow, and I was moved by the fierce determination of the Abuelas as they confronted the unimaginable. By the end, I was deeply impacted, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the legacy of these women and the truths that were uncovered.

This book is a masterful blend of history, investigation, and humanity, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be challenged, inspired, and profoundly moved.

A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland is an incredibly well-researched and written story about a lost generation of Argentinians. Starting in the mid-1970s, Gilliland follows Rosa's journey as her pregnant daughter is abducted, tortured, and killed by Argentina’s military. Rosa then spends years searching for her missing grandson. The book mixes in the political history of different regimes, stories of other families who faced similar tragedies, the rise of a protest movement, the development of genetic testing and forensic genetics, and the impact of trauma passed down through generations.
The amazing thing about this book is how the author effortlessly combines decades of history, personal stories, and ethical questions into something that's so readable and engaging. It's not a dry political science piece, though it does raise important questions about what justice looks like, who identity belongs to, and whether the past should be remembered or forgotten. The book looks at big events while also focusing on individual struggles and emotions, without ever getting confusing or boring.
Even though I knew a bit about the desaparecidos (those kidnapped and killed by the government) and their stolen children, I learned so much more about the systematic plan that extended beyond Argentina. I also didn't realize that scientists made major developments in tests specifically to reconnect families, which are now the basis for today's ancestry service kits.
I enjoy this sort of narrative journalism, and this is one of the best examples that I have read. Highly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the eARC.

I like my books to be messy. Not the writing obviously, but in the underlying issues brought up naturally by the story. There is something about a narrative that makes you wonder, "Well, what would I have done? What is the right answer in this situation?" An exceptional example of this is A Flower Traveled in My Blood by Haley Cohen Gilliland. I still don't know what I would have done, and I know I don't have a right answer.

Gilliland looks at Argentina from the 1970s to today. Specifically, violent and murderous government officials were kidnapping suspected anti-junta actors and making them disappear. In the middle of this violence, hundreds of babies were taken forcefully from their parents and handed to friends of the government. Their parents would never be seen again. The main characters of the story become the grandmothers who take it upon themselves to find their grandchildren and take on the government. There are many superlative things I can say about Gilliland's writing, but the most important part is how she seamlessly integrates a multitude of ideas, people, and events. In the wrong hands, this book would be 600 pages that would be impossible to follow. The author has an eye for details which allow her to quickly imprint her characters in the reader's mind without slowing down. I can not overstate how well this book flows considering the 50+ year timeline and the amount of people to keep track of.

If this all sounds like a lot, well it is, but the heartbreak doesn't end when the grandmothers start to find their grandchildren. Instead, a moral question becomes a major problem. What if these children don't want to have their world shattered by finding out their parents are actually not their parents? If these adoptive parents honestly adopted these children thinking it was all legal, then can they have these kids ripped from the only home they have ever truly known? However, if the truth isn't uncovered, do the kidnappers evade justice?

Atop all of this drama is also the question of how a country moves on from extreme generational trauma. Can society move on if trials seem never-ending? If a moratorium is placed on past crimes, can there ever be justice? Gilliland lays this all out for the reader without moralizing. It's the best way to go about it in my mind and it makes this one of the best books I have read this year.

(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by NetGalley and Avid Reader Press.)