For almost five millennia, in every culture and in every majorreligion, indigo-a blue pigment obtained from the small green leaf of aparasitic shrub through a complex process that even scientists stillregard as mysterious-has been at the center of turbulent humanencounters.Indigo is the story of this precious dye andits ancient heritage: its relationship to slavery as the "hidden half"of the transatlantic slave trade, its profound influence on fashion, andits spiritual significance, which is little recognized but no lessalive today. It is an untold story, brimming with rich, electrifyingtales of those who shaped the course of colonial history and a worldeconomy.But Indigo is also the story of a personal quest:Catherine McKinley is the descendant of a clan of Scots who wore indigotartan as their virile armor; the kin of several generations of Jewish"rag traders"; the maternal granddaughter of a Massachusetts textilefactory owner; and the paternal granddaughter of African slaves-herancestors were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where alength of blue cotton could purchase human life. McKinley''s journey insearch of beauty and her own history ultimately leads her to a new andsatisfying path, to finally "taste life." With its four-color photoinsert and sumptuous design, Indigo will be as irresistible to look at as it is to read.