Floating: A Novel

From the gifted author of A Little Piece of Sky: The poignant tale of a young woman who must come to terms with her biracial identity.

Shana Washington is the product of two very different worlds. Her white mother is a socialite with an Ivy League education; Shana’s black father has a weakness for whiskey and can’t stay faithful to any woman, but when his daughter is in peril, he always finds a way to rescue her. Hauntingly evoking the worlds represented by these three characters, Floating follows the life of Shana as she seeks acceptance—and wholeness—from white and black communities that both turn her away. When she begins a college romance with Lionel, a handsome track star with bronze-colored skin, her dreams of finding a soulmate seem tantalizingly close to coming true. Yet Lionel’s childhood demons are even more vicious than Shana’s, threatening the fragile love they can’t admit to needing.

Tracing the themes of identity, healing, and self-acceptance that won such acclaim for her debut novel, Nicole Bailey-Williams now shares a provocative new storyline for anyone who has faith in the power of self-discovery.