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My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets
Little, Brown
October 2007
On Sale: September 27, 2007
Featuring: Anatole Broyard; Bliss Broyard
528 pages
ISBN: 0316163503
EAN: 9780316163507
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir | Non-Fiction
Two months before he died of cancer, renowned literary critic Anatole Broyard called his grown son and daughter to his side, intending to reveal a secret he had kept all their lives and most of his own: he was black. But even as he lay dying, the truth was too difficult for him to share, and it was his wife who told Bliss that her WASPy, privileged Connecticut childhood had come at a price. Ever since his own parents, New Orleans Creoles, had moved to Brooklyn and began to "pass" in order to get work, Anatole had learned to conceal his racial identity. As he grew older and entered the ranks of the New York literary elite, he maintained the façade. Now his daughter Bliss tries to make sense of his choices and the impact of this revelation on her own life. She searches out the family she never knew in New York and New Orleans, and considers the profound consequences of racial identity. With unsparing candor and nuanced insight, Broyard chronicles her evolution from sheltered WASP to a woman of mixed race ancestry.
 Media BuzzDay To Day - November 26, 2007
Today - November 12, 2007
Fresh Air - NPR - September 27, 2007
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