Black & White

(Paperback)

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Description

Discover the pacey and provocative backlist novel about mothers and daughters from the New York Times bestselling author of Signal Fires Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the nude portraits she took of Clara throughout her childhood. At age eighteen, sick of her notoriety as 'the girl in the pictures', Clara fled New York City, settling and making her own family in small-town Maine. But years later, when Ruth reaches out from her deathbed, Clara suddenly finds herself drawn back to the past she thought she had escaped. From the beloved author of Signal Fires and Family History, Black & White is a moving love letter to those familial bonds that both bruise and make you in equal measure.

Reviews

Universal dilemmas face us all, and it is the novelist's job to breathe life into them one way or another, and this is something Shapiro does very well indeed * New York Times Book Review *
Spellbinding...provocative, hypnotic...spot-on authentic. A cool depiction of a mother and daughter's fraught and fiery relationship * USA Today *
Shapiro's central characters are expertly rendered: both the damaged Clara, whose childhood trust in and love for her mother was abused, and Ruth, whose love for her daughter and her art were so inextricably linked that they became interchangeable * Elle Magazine *
Enthralling, fast-paced and a great read. Black & White presents knotty, compelling issues that Shapiro examines intelligently * The Miami Herald *
Uncompromising storytelling.... The ideas Shapiro grapples with resonate, and she raises trenchant and enduring questions that resist easy answers * Los Angeles Times *

Author Bio

Dani Shapiro is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Inheritance. Her other books include the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. In February of 2019, Dani launched an original podcast, Family Secrets, in collaboration with iHeartMedia. An iTunes Top 10 podcast, the series features stories from guests who - like Dani - have uncovered life-altering and long-hidden secrets from their past. Along with teaching writing workshops around the world, Dani has taught at Columbia and New York University, and is the cofounder of Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. Find her at danishapiro.com.