Black rainbow

Miriam Sagan

Told from two full points of view, the central premise is a woman kidnaps a pregnant mother, murders her, and claims the child as her own. However, the authorities return the infant to her biological family, and prosecute the killer. The novel asks what would happen to such as child, and would there be any relationship between the child and the killer? Set in the late '60s, in New Jersey, a surreal lower east side of Manhattan, and a magic-imbued remote northern New Mexico. The first point of view is Rania s the kidnapped infant, now a teen-ager. Her school provides little, except for a friendship with the charismatic Monique. Her family s Armenian heritage hints at a dark historical past. Slowly, Rania uncovers the story of her birth. Egged on by Monique, she begins to want to search for her mother s killer. But Monique has problems of her own. Her father s flirtations towards her...