My father is black and my mother is white and my brother is a vegetable. When Emma Boudreauxs older brother winds up in a coma after a freak accident, she loses her compass: only Bernie was able to navigateif not always diplomaticallythe terrain of their biracial identity. And although her father and brother are bound by a haunting past that Emma slowly uncovers, she sees that she might just escape. In exhilarating prose, The Professors Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, contested territory that gives rise to rage, confusion, madness, and invisibility. This astonishingly original voice surges with energy and purpose.

• 2007familiescoming-of-agefiction