Fixing the Fates: An Adoptee's Story of Truth and Lies

Written by Diane Dewey

Narrated by Rachel Pater

The secrets, lies, and layers of deception about Diane Dewey’s origins were meant for her protection—but eventually, they imploded. Living with her family in suburban Philadelphia, Diane had grown up knowing she was born in Stuttgart and adopted at age one from an orphanage. She’d been told her biological parents were dead. Then, in 2002, when she was forty-seven years old, Diane got a letter from Switzerland: her biological father, Otto, wanted to bring her into his life. With that, her world shifted on its axis.

In the months that ensued, everybody had a different story to tell about Diane’s origins, including Otto when they met in New York City. She struggled to understand what was at stake with the lies. Like a private eye, she sifted through competing versions of the truth only to find that, having traveled throughout Europe and back, identity is a state of mind. As more information surfaced, the myths gave way to a certain elusive peace; Diane discovered a tribe in her mother’s family, found a Swiss husband, gained a voice, and, for the first time, began to trust in the intuition that had nudged her all along. One-part forensic investigation, one-part self-discovery, Fixing the Fates is a story about seeing behind artifice and living one’s truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: She Writes Press
• Release date: Mar 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669677338

Diane Dewey

Diane received a BA from Villanova University, The Honors Program in Liberal Arts. She later earned a certificate from The Art Institute of Philadelphia. As assistant to the director at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in the 1990s and then the National Academy (also in New York), she solidified her interest in the arts with a certificate from New York University School of Appraisal Studies. She is the founder of an art appraisal business, The Realization of Art, and is certified in contemporary art. Throughout, she wrote freelance, contributing to Shared Space, a monograph of the Joseph Cohen art collection and to Artes magazine. Dewey graduated with a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University in 2015, after which she began working in the field of adoption counseling. She has since returned to writing full time; Fixing the Fates is her first book.