The Professor's Daughter

A daughter''s future and her father''s past converge in Emily Raboteau''s explosive first novel exploring identity assimilation and the legacy of raceMy father is black and my mother is white and my brother is a vegetable. When Emma Boudreaux''s older brother Bernie winds up in a coma after a freak accident it''s as if she loses a part of herself. All their lives he has served as her compass her stronger better half: Bernie was brilliant when Emma was smart charismatic when she was awkward and confident when she was shy. Only Bernie was able to navigate-if not always diplomatically-the terrain of their biracial identity. Now as the chronic rash that''s flared up throughout her life returns with a vengeance Emma is sleepwalking through her first year at college left alone to grow into herself.The key to Emma''s self-discovery lies in her father''s past. Esteemed Princeton professor Bernard Boudreaux is emotionally absent and secretive about his family history. Little does Emma know just how haunted that history is how tortured the path from the Deep South town to his present Ivy League success has been. Though her father and brother are bound by the past Emma might just escape. In exhilarating magical prose The Professor''s Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family the contested territory that gives birth to rage confusion madness and invisibility. This striking debut marks the arrival of an astonishingly original voice that surges with energy and purpose.