He was heir to one of New York's wealthiest families. She was the woman he secretly married. When his family discovered her racial background, their marriage became the center of one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s.
"An engrossing and captivating novel that resonates with this boisterous era."
? Historical Novel Society
"GET IT."
? Kirkus Reviews
"An extraordinary work of historical fiction."
? Midwest Book Review
Leonard Rhinelander and Alice Jones believed their love could overcome the rigid boundaries of race and class. But once their marriage became public, a private love story exploded into a national scandal.
Newspapers chronicled every revelation. Crowds packed the courthouse. Alice found herself at the center of a public spectacle, forced to defend her marriage, her identity and her dignity before a nation eager to judge her.
What did Leonard know when he married Alice? What could she prove? And when race, money and power enter a courtroom, where does fact end and truth begin?
Drawing on trial transcripts, contemporary newspapers, personal letters and diary entries, William Kinsolving's Black and White and Read All Over reimagines the remarkable true story of the Rhinelander case through the lives of the people who endured it?a story of love under surveillance, privilege and power, and the dangerous distance between what is legal and what is just.
In 1925, America couldn't look away. A century later, neither will you.
