By The Light of My Father's Smile

About this book

A family from the United States goes to the remote Sierras in Mexico - the writer-to-be, Susannah; her sister, Magdalena; her father and mother. And there, amid an endangered band of mixed-race Blacks and Indians called the Mundo, they begin an encounter that will change them more than they could ever dream.

Moving back and forth in time, and among unforgettable characters and their stories, Walker crosses conventional borders of all kinds as she explores in this magical novel the ways in which a woman's denied sexuality leads to the loss of the much prized and necessary original self; and how she regains that self, even as her family's past of lies and love is transformed.

Subjects

  • african american families
  • african americans
  • afro-american families
  • afro-americans
  • afro-americans in fiction
  • afronorteamericanos
  • fathers and daughters
  • fathers and daughters, fiction
  • fiction
  • fiction, general
  • fiction, psychological
  • indians of mexico
  • indians of mexico in fiction
  • indios de méxico
  • mestizaje
  • mexico, fiction
  • mexico in fiction
  • mixed descent
  • new york times reviewed
  • noirs américains
  • novela
  • psychology
  • religious life
  • romans, nouvelles
  • self
  • sexual behavior
  • spirituality
  • women