The White Family

This ambitious, groundbreaking novel by Maggie Gee takes on the taboo subject of racial hatred as it looks for the roots of violence within the family and British society.

Outstanding . . . tender, sexy and alarming.—Jim Crace

When Alfred White, patriarch of the White family, collapses at work, his wife, May, and their three disparate children find themselves confronting issues they would rather ignore. Maggie Gee skillfully weaves a narrative that reminds us that racism not only devastates the lives of its victims, but also those of its perpetrators.

Maggie Gee was chosen as one of Granta's original 'Best Young British Novelists'. She has published many novels to great acclaim, including The White Family, which was shortlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize for Fiction and for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2004; and The Flood, which was longlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize. She has also published My Cleaner, My Driver, The Ice People and My Animal Life with Telegram. Virginia Woolf in Manhattan is her latest novel.

Maggie was the first female Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, 2004-2008, and is now one of its Vice-Presidents. She lives in London.