Colors of the Wheel
On the night of the 2012 presidential election, a black girl stands her ground against an assault by two white boys and kills one. A judge will decide if she goes to trial. Waiting in the courtroom with her are her white parents and her blended family: many shades of brown, and as they wait, their stories are revealed, stories of connection and disconnection, hope and despair.Told as a mosaic of fictional biographies, each of their secrets and struggles shed light on the modern-day color line and the challenges of mixed marriages and mixed-race adoptions. Will justice be served? The novel is not a mystery or a history, rather a contemplation of a post-civil rights/Obama-era America. Is a post-racialist society possible? For readers of Barbara Kingsolver, Meg Wolitzer, Alice Walker, and others who speak truth in fiction, and members of book groups who dialogue on important cultural matters.