The White Family

Alfred White, a London park keeper, rules his home with a mixture of ferocity and tenderness that has estranged his three children. But family ties are strong, and when Alfred collapses on duty one day, they rush to be with him. His daughter’s partner, Elroy, a black social worker, is brought face to face with Alfred’s younger son Dirk, who hates and fears all black people, and the scene is set for violence, forcing Alfred’s wife May to choose between justice and kinship. This groundbreaking novel takes on the taboo subject of racial hatred as it looks at love, hatred, sex, comedy and death in an ordinary British family. ‘The White Family points to new directions in British writing. Full of power and passion, as well as somte timely warnings, this is one of the year’s finest novels, and it deserves the widest possible readership.’ Literary Review ‘Intensely touching, full of ironies, situational and verbal, [and] brilliantly connected with...