When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.
An eloquent look at the strange shapes love takes when stretched to the breaking point, Black & White positions its unforgettable characters at the collision point of motherhood and artistic talent, and poses the questions: what can we ask our children to endure? And what can we demand of our parents?
Ten-year-old Alice MacCauley and her playmate, Theo Swann, are the heroes of this frank and tender portrayal of two children coming of age in the course of a Vermont summer. Veteran literary novelist Carrie Brown brings her considerable gifts to bear in creating this affecting tale.
