about the book.

What happens when the life you remember isn't the whole story?

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Born into chaos in Costa Rica, Jay Barbanel was adopted at three years old alongside his older brother. By seven, they had been separated, leaving Jay to grow up across continents, cultures, and identities, carrying questions he didn't yet have the words to ask.

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For decades, the story of his beginning belonged to everyone but him.

Until a forgotten box of adoption records changed everything.

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What began as a search for answers became an unraveling of everything he thought he knew. A name he had never known. A family he never knew existed. Eleven siblings. And a past that had been waiting thirty-five years to be discovered.

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Finding Tico isn't simply a story about adoption or reunion.

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It's about the distance between who we're told we are and who we discover ourselves to be. About the complicated relationship between love and loss. And about finding the courage to question a life without denying the people who helped build it.

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Some stories are about finding your way home.

This one asks what happens when you've spent your entire life trying to figure out where home is.

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Dedicated to Jay's parents, who saved his life. Twice.