The Color of Family: A Novel

(Hardback)

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Description

A tragedy upends a family's delicate balance in an emotional novel about secrets, guilt, friendship, race, and reconciliation by Jerry McGill, author of Bed Stuy: A Love Story. Who wants to believe their family could ever be broken Devon and James Payne are brothers and rivals since childhood. But they share an affinity for sports that brings glory to their Connecticut town and promise for the future. Then they're in a car accident. Devon is paralyzed for life, while James goes on to live the dream. For the Paynes, the tremulous repercussions of that evening never settled. Over the course of a decade, Devon decides to visit his seven siblings now scattered across the globe. Each has moved on, yet each struggles to cope with the traumatic event that irrevocably connects them. Devon confronts not only his own demons and family secrets but also the guilt and heartbreaking betrayals that followed in the wake of the tragedy. He also discovers the power of forgiveness-and that coming to terms with the past is the only way to live free in the present.

Reviews

A uniquely structured novel with memorable characters and a generational scope. Kirkus Reviews The shifting perspectives give contours to the sprawling family and its painful secrets. Publishers Weekly McGills prose is theatrical, packing every paragraph with action. The Color of Family crosses vast expanses of time and space, with secrets and twists unraveling at breakneck speed; its deeply engrossing. The familys voices are alive and expressive through diary entries, interviews, rich dialogue, and detailed accounts of their familial relationships and social circles. The Payne family is unforgettable, and the humanity McGill observes through them is a gift. Booklist (starred review) In sparkling slivers of stories set from the early 1960s to the early 2000s, fortune batters a wealthy Black family of Connecticut, whose six children initially seem set for stardom in sports and beyond. A car wreck, [a] drug bust, illicit passions, and long-kept secrets change all that. People Magazine

Author Bio

Jerry McGill is a writer and artist. He is the author of Bed Stuy: A Love Story and the memoir Dear Marcus: A Letter to the Man Who Shot Me. After receiving a BA in English literature from Fordham University in the Bronx and a masters degree in education from Pacific University in Oregon, Jerry went on to teach high school and travel the world mentoring disabled children. He lives in Portland, Oregon.