ALIEN LAND

The bitter experiences and harsh lessons that mixed blood brings are the constants of Kern Roberts' life which is told in cutbacks and current episodes. His white mother sees her colored husband, Charles, change from a pleasant lovable man into a zealot crusading for the rights of his people, and when she is killed by a Negro, in Washington, the resulting notoriety and scandal leave their mark on Kern. Charles' work for the Freedom League keeps him from his boy, and Kern's attack on their maid threatens to land him in a reformatory, but an understanding judge lets him off; a chance at a white school is ruined when his color becomes known; college in the South winds up with the brutal murder of his brother-in-law by white men -- and Kern is through forever with his colored race. A job in radio, writing, and his love for Marianne are lost with the coming of this war and his experiences in it prove that it is not only the Negro who suffers but all to whom men are unkind. He returns to Marianne and adjustment to the world he must live in. A telling novel of living fear, hatred and bitterness redeemed by a love stronger than all these, this has, in spite of its drama, a sympathetic understanding of the problems involved.