Caucasia

Blurb

Caucasia is an American novel written by Danzy Senna. Caucasia is the coming-of-age story of Birdie and Cole, multiracial sisters who have a white mother and black father. The novel is set in Boston, Massachusetts during the turbulent mid-1970s.
Much of the novel centers around the theme of racial passing. Senna upends the traditional “tragic mulatto” storyline by exploring Birdie's desire to be accepted as black, although she appears to be white. The author presents a non-singular concept of being “white.” There are many shades of white that Birdie’s visible mixed ethnicity seems to allow her to pass as: Puerto Rican, French, Italian, Pakistani, Greek, Cape Verdean or Jewish.
Senna also explores themes of invisibility and disappearing. Birdie is multiracial; she feels invisible to her father, who seems to prefer her older and darker sister. She disappears with her mother, whose paranoia about being followed by the FBI leads her to construct new Jewish identities for them.
Throughout the novel, Birdie seeks to understand who she is and how she fits into the world.