Black Rainbow

Told from two full points of view, the central premise is a woman kidnaps a pregnant mother, murders her, and claims the child as her own. However, the authorities return the infant to her biological family, and prosecute the killer. The novel asks what would happen to such as child, and would there be any relationship between the child and the killer? Set in the late 60’s, in New Jersey, a surreal lower east side of Manhattan, and a magic-imbued remote northern New Mexico. The first point of view is Rania’s—the kidnapped infant, now a teen-ager. Her school provides little, except for a friendship with the charismatic Monique. Her family’s Armenian heritage hints at a dark historical past. Slowly, Rania uncovers the story of her birth. Egged on by Monique, she begins to want to search for her mother’s killer. But Monique has problems of her own. Her father’s flirtations towards her are progressing to something more sinister. Rebellious and longing for a bigger world—Monique disappears after a peace rally. Rania goes in search of her aided by Michael, who despite Rania’s coolness proves himself a worthy and a streetwise guide and boyfriend—Rania enters “Bablyon” as the novel shifts into magical realism in an old warehouse with mix of light shows, music, magic theater; a place of transformation. Here, Rania finds—and loses— Monique fueling the rest of her journey—a solo quest to the desert and mountains of New Mexico to find the killer, Mary Rose. The second point of view is that of Mary Rose. An ordinary young woman from a rural town outside of Albuquerque, she is driven mad by miscarriages and infertility. After she briefly kidnaps a child, and continues to be haunted by ghost babies, her marriage starts to dissolve. Her crime of murder leads to her incarceration in a mental institution. Here her healing begins. Mentored by a co-inmate, she recovers, and in an administrative slip-up, is released. Mary Rose travels to a remote Benedictine monastery, where she is taken in and helped to return to a normal life. She goes to work at a spa, living in a trailer, until Rania appears on her doorstep. Mary Rose’s desire for a child overwhelms her reality, and never allows its fruition. For both protagonists, their identity is interwoven with the failure of their relationship as mother and child. If both Rania and Mary Rose are missing pieces of themselves, it is only in confronting each other that they can be whole.