An Accident of Birth: A story of adoption and identity

When a stranger who turns out to be his niece receives an extra 23andMe test by mistake, it changes Alex Blum's life forever. 

At the age of sixty, Alex Blum made a life-altering discovery: he was the eldest of four biological brothers he never knew existed. Born in 1955, Blum had always known he was adopted, yet the secrecy of the era kept every detail of his origins sealed. Without a court order, he spent decades without a single clue about where he came from—or why he had been given up.

Raised by a wealthy family on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Blum grew up surrounded by privilege but plagued by a deep sense of disconnection. He often felt out of place and emotionally unmoored, longing for a sense of belonging that never arrived.

Having built a career helping others tell their stories—first for brands as a commercial producer and then as a feature film producer with credits including Behind Enemy Lines and Flight of the Phoenix for 20th Century Fox—Blum finally turns the camera on himself in An Accident of Birth.

More than a memoir of adoption and reunion, An Accident of Birth explores the universal emotional landscape shared by adoptees everywhere. With candid, affecting prose, Blum examines the pressures of “adoptee gratitude,” the quiet ache of alienation, and the lifelong search for identity, connection, and home.