The Color Line

In this richly observed historical, Italian Somali novelist Scego (Adua) blends the real lives of activist Sarah Parker Remond and sculptor Edmonia Lewis—Black American women living in late-1800s Rome—to create a wholly original character in artist Lafanu Brown. Of Haitian Chippewa descent, Lafanu is taken from her family by the self-aggrandizing Bathsheba MacKenzie, whose plans to educate her are disrupted when Lafanu is badly beaten by a mob and thrown out of the elite school that considers her the problem. A private tutor encourages her artistic talents, a mentor insists on taking her to Rome, and Lafanu leaves behind the man she loves to launch a successful career. Standing before a fountain featuring four Moors in chains, she has an epiphany, as does university student Leila decades later on the same spot: Lafanu will paint the oppressed, while Leila—determined to “give others new eyes for seeing the world”—becomes an art curator championing Lafanu’s work even as she assists a young cousin who has fled Somalia and fallen foul of human traffickers.