Best-selling author’s new novel inspired by family history with adoption and life in Mountain Brook

The girl was who sent a Facebook friend request on April 20, 2010 was a stranger to Patti Callahan Henry.

But Henry soon learned she was the 20 year old whom her sister, Barbi Callahan Burris, had placed for adoption decades earlier. Curious what her birth mother looked like, the girl had searched the internet for Burris and found her name on the dedication page in one of Henry’s New York Times best-selling novels.

In that one day, years of wondering and waiting came to an end for the Callahan family — and inspiration was born for Henry’s latest novel, And Then I Found You, which will be released April 9.

In many ways, the book is a departure from Henry’s previous eight novels. The story of birth mother Kate Vaughn, her 13-year-old daughter Emily, and her journey to conquer her painful past is largely autobiographical in inspiration.

“I was trying to dig emotional honesty out of the story without factual honesty,” Henry said. The process took her nearly two and half years, significantly longer than her purely fictional previous novels.

Also different from her other works, the story is grounded in the places where Henry lives her life. In addition, it was her first to pen from the attic office of her Mountain Brook home, where she moved in the summer of 2011.

There are scenes set in Mountain Brook Village, at the field by Mountain Brook Elementary School, in a Davenport’s by another name and at Highlands Bar and Grill. The novel is also set in Bluffton, S.C., where the Henry family spends summers.

The first draft of the book was a factual account of her sister’s story, but Henry said it turned out terrible.

So the author sat down and asked herself what the truth of the story was for her and what about the story was worth telling. Then she built a fictional truth around that story.

“My sister’s story was about waiting and not knowing the outcome, and trying to live an honest life with this indeterminable wondering and waiting,” she said.

In the writing process Henry spent a lot of time talking to her niece and then tried to dig into feelings she would have had at 13 years old, the age of the novel’s character.

Although many would critique her manuscript, Henry said she was most nervous about her niece reading the book. She knew it was important to portray that her niece really loved whom she considers her real family. The book also uses a few lines that her niece had actually said, with permission of course.

 “But she really loved it!” Henry said. “She sent a really beautiful email after reading it, and it meant more than any reviews I have received.”

Henry and her sister have co-written a non-fiction short story, “Friend Request,” about the day her niece found her. It is available as an e-book on Amazon.com for 99 cents. Her sister is also working on a memoir about her experience.

And Then I Found You will debut with a launch party April 8 at 6 p.m. at Vulcan Park and Museum, where one of the scenes from the novel is set. Both Henry and her sister will speak and answer questions, and refreshments and a bar will be available.