Raceless

A GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, EVENING STANDARD AND COSMOPOLITAN BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR 2021

In Georgina Lawton's childhood home, her Blackness was never acknowledged; the obvious fact of her brown skin, ignored by her white parents. Over time, secrets and a complex family story became accepted as truth and Georgina found herself complicit in the erasure of her racial identity.

It was only when her beloved father died that the truth began to emerge. Fleeing the shattered pieces of her family life and the comfortable, suburban home she grew up in, at age 22 Georgina went in search of answers - embarking on a journey that took her around the world, to the DNA testing industry, and to countless others, whose identities have been questioned, denied or erased.

What do you do when your heritage or parentage has been obscured in a complex web of deceit? How can you discuss race with your family, when you each see the world differently? When a personal identity has been wrongly constructed, how do you start again?

Raceless is a beautifully-written true account of a young woman seeking her own story amid devastating family secrets. For readers of powerful, moving books about family, growing up and identity, such as My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay and Educated by Tara Westover.