"Everybody's Son probes directly into the tender spots of race and
privilege in America. . . . With assured prose and deep insight into the
human heart, Umrigar explores the moral gray zone of what parents, no
matter their race, will do for love." -- Celeste Ng, author of
Everything I Never Told You
The bestselling, critically acclaimed author of The Space Between Us
deftly explores issues of race, class, privilege, and power and asks us
to consider uncomfortable moral questions in this probing, ambitious,
emotionally wrenching novel of two families--one Black, one white.
During a terrible heat wave in 1991, ten-year-old Anton has been locked
in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air
conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights
do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and
climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood
when the police find him.
Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three
blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. When she comes to, she
repeatedly asks for her baby boy. She never meant to leave Anton--she
went out for a quick hit and was headed right back, until her drug
dealer raped her and kept her high. Though the bond between mother and
son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while
Juanita goes to jail.
The Harvard-educated son of a US senator, Judge David Coleman is a scion
of northeastern white privilege. Desperate to have a child in the house
again after the tragic death of his teenage son, David uses his power
and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his
wife, Delores--actions that will have devastating consequences in the
years to come.
Following in his adopted family's footsteps, Anton, too, rises within
the establishment. But when he discovers the truth about his life, his
birth mother, and his adopted parents, this man of the law must come to
terms with the moral complexities of crimes committed by the people he
loves most.
