The Color Line
A Novel
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by true events, this gorgeous, haunting novel intertwines the lives of two Black female artists more than a century apart, both outsiders in Italy.
It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn’t let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city’s most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiancé about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier.
In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.
Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be “other,” to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scego's accomplished latest (after Adua) revolves around a young Chippewa Haitian American woman who uses the patronizing sponsorship of rich white women to create an independent life for herself as a painter. The narrative begins with Lafanu Brown's assault by a mob in Rome in the late 19th century, in retaliation for the recent Dogali massacre in Africa, then jumps back to Lafanu's adolescence among the Chippewa, her time as a student at the private Coberlin school, and her romance with Frederick Bailey, a character inspired by abolitionist and author Frederick Douglass. Then a patron gives her the chance to go to Italy, claiming that "only in Rome can one become a great artist." Interspliced with Lafanu's story is a chronicle of present-day Somali Italian art curator Leila, who, while putting together an exhibition of Lafanu's work, is inspired by the artist's determination. Leila also assists her cousin, Binti, as she attempts to leave Somalia, and later helps Binti recover from abuse by traffickers. Scego reins in the sprawling narrative with keen instincts for storytelling and foreshadowing. It adds up to an engrossing tale of ambition, survival, and love.
