Beyond The Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes - Hardcover

Urquhart, Emily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1443423564 ISBN 13: 9781443423564

Publisher: HarperAvenue, 2015

Synopsis

Like any new mother, Emily is thrilled when her first child, a daughter, is born. The baby, Sadie, is healthy and stunningly beautiful, with snow white hair and fair skin. Even the doctors and nurses can’t help a second look at this magical child. But soon a darker current begins to emerge—something is amiss. After three months of testing, Sadie is diagnosed with albinism, a rare genetic condition.

Emily, a folklore scholar and an award-winning journalist, is accustomed to understanding and processing the world through stories. With Sadie at her side, Emily researches the cultural beliefs surrounding albinism and finds a curious history of outlandish tales of magic, and of good and evil reaching back through time, along with present-day atrocities. In some parts of the world, people with albinism are stalked; their condition is seen to bring luck and health as well as danger and death. Investigating the different reactions, in different cultures, to those with albinism, Emily begins to see her child as a connection between worlds.

Part memoir, part cultural critique, and part genetic travelogue, Beyond the Pale is a brave, intimate investigation into the secret histories that each of us carries in our genes and an inspiring and beautiful memoir about parenting a child with a disability—and building a better future for that child.

About this title

About the Author

Emily Urquhart, a writer and folklorist, grew up in a small town in southwestern Ontario and has lived in Nice, Dublin, Edinburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, and Kyiv, among other places. She has a doctorate in folklore from Memorial University of Newfoundland and undergraduate degrees in journalism and art history. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Reader’s Digest, Flare, and The Walrus, and she won a National Magazine Award in 2014. Emily Urquhart lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with her family.

Review

'Beyond the Pale is a brave, thoughtful, clear, and always graceful journey through the terrifying randomness of genetics and the unexpected ways genetic anomalies canmarknotjustchildren,butallthelivesaroundthem. Bestofall,itendswitha surprise-one that will interest anyone thinking of having a family.' Ian Brown, author of The Boy in the Moon: A father's search for his disabled son; 'Beyond the Pale is a powerful story about maternal love, the long reach of family and the ways -- good and evil - we react to disability.' Katherine Ashenburg, author of The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History; 'A graceful, perceptive rendering of a misunderstood condition.'- Kirkus Reviews

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperAvenue
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1443423564
• ISBN 13: 9781443423564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288