But a few years later , Pool 's already unconventional life took an even more astonishing twist . Almost two decades after she left the Eritrean orphanage where she was adopted , Pool received a letter from the east African country informing her that her father was alive and well , living back home with her brothers and sister . The news left the then 19-year-old Pool reeling . `` It was a complete shock , '' she recalls . `` And it was n't a creeping thing like ` maybe you have a cousin ' or ` maybe you have an aunt ' -- it was like BAM ! ` you have a father , ' BAM ! ` here are your brothers and here 's your sister , ' '' she says . `` My head went into a spin , I did n't know what to do or how I was supposed to respond to this -- was I supposed to get on a plane and go to Eritrea , was I supposed to go back to all the people who I told my story to and tell them ` actually that story is not right ,
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- For years , all Hannah Pool knew was that her biological parents had died shortly after her birth . An Eritrean-born girl adopted as an infant by a British academic , Pool found herself spending her first years in Norway before landing in the UK at the age of seven . At times , she remembers , growing up in the northwest English city of Manchester as a Norwegian-speaking black girl with a white father was a source of confusion for people around her . `` When I was walking down the street holding my dad 's hand , people would sometimes check that he was n't sort of taking me , that he was n't kidnapping me , '' says Pool , who today is a writer and journalist in the UK . `` There were lots of incidents like that which actually are just part of my upbringing , part of my DNA almost -- I 'm used to having to explain myself , explain what I 'm doing in the room , explain my relationship , whether it 's with my dad or my brother or my sister , '' she adds .