Vorab-Rezensenten

In 1953, young, blonde, and beautiful Boy Novak arrives in the small New England town of Flax Hill by chance. Not long after arriving she meets and marries Arturo Whitman, a local widower, and becomes stepmother to his exquisitely charming and pretty daughter, Snow, much loved by all who behold her. The two are content to play family until Boy gives birth to her own daughter, Bird, whose dark skin is the physical manifestation of the Whitman secret: they are light-skinned African Americans who have been passing for white. Boy loves Bird deeply, but her arrival serves to destabilize the fragile bond between mother and step-daughter. Becoming a wicked stepmother is not a straightforward process for Boy; it’s painful, it divides her from herself, and she wants to find her way back to a time when her reflection was someone she relied upon rather than someone whose gaze she avoids. Her instincts lead her to wonder about Snow; is there something dangerous, a by-product of the special way that people have treated her all her life, lurking just beneath the surface of the perfect girl? With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi masterfully recreates an electric and turbulent time in American history and offers a penetrating look at the shamefulness of classifying people by their appearance. Dazzlingly imaginative and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishingly accomplished novel.