Georgina Lawton – författare

A Bustle Most Anticipated Debut of the Year

From The Guardian’s Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed—through the author’s own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black.

Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina’s insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was.

It was only after her father’s death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage—and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe—the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Morocco—and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves.

Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one’s identity.

A GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, EVENING STANDARD AND COSMOPOLITAN BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR 2021''A jaw-dropping story, told deftly . . . a gripping, thought-provoking book'' Sunday TimesGeorgina Lawton was born to two white parents. Despite her brown skin, her racial identity was never spoken of in her childhood home.The truth only began to emerge when her beloved father died. Fleeing the shattered pieces of her family life, Georgina went in search of answers - a search that took her around the world, to the DNA testing industry and to talk to others whose identities had been questioned or erased.How do you come to terms with a family history tangled in deceit? And how do you define yourself after a childhood that denied a crucial part of your identity?A beautifully-written true account of a young woman seeking her own story amid devastating family secrets. For readers of moving, powerful books about family and identity such as My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay and Educated by Tara Westover.-----------''Freshly fascinating . . . She writes beautifully about questions of identity and belonging, so central to each of us in finding our particular place in the world'' New York Times Book Review''Extraordinary'' Daily Mail''A poignant and eye-opening memoir'' Yomi Adegoke, co-author of Slay in Your Lane''A beautiful heart-expanding memoir, truly unforgettable'' Emma Gannon, author of Sabotage''At turns revelatory and profound, this memoir sings'' Publishers Weekly''A beautifully written account of an extraordinary story, as eye-opening as it is profound'' Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book