Night Talk - by Elizabeth Cox (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Cox puts a human face on the struggle for equality in this thoughtful, well-written exploration of race relations in the South."-The Raleigh News & Observer

At night, under the same roof, under the same moon, nothing divides the girls, Evie and Janey Louise. Talking in their beds, they discuss their strong mothers and their absent fathers, and they wonder about the paths their lives will take. Yet during the day, Evie is blind to their differences-that she is white and her best friend is black.

In Night Talk, Elizabeth Cox tells a moving story about two girls who, though they grew up in the same house, reflect the alternate realities of white and black society. They are influenced by both the massive social changes sweeping the country during the Civil Rights years, and by our extraordinary human capacities for fear and hate and love. But in the end, it is the world they share under cover of darkness, through their candid nighttime conversations, that proves to be the strongest force of all.

Review Quotes

"At its core, [Night Talk] is a novel about the insidious nature of the great American dilemma. . . . Cox is a graceful writer who confronts a difficult issue, and handles it with pathos and recognition." --The Boston Globe

"Elizabeth Cox never writers of a character whom she cannot literally inhabit. That beautiful property of her mind is visible in Night Talk." --Reynolds Price

"In Night Talk, Elizabeth Cox's wise and touching novel, we are pulled in to the darkest fears and secrets and truths of the lives of two young women--one black and one white--their feelings and lust for life identical, their experiences of the world dramatically different. It is these differences that Elizabeth Cox illuminates so beautifully, etching that fine line between night and day, hope and despair. Ultimately Night Talk is a novel about love in all shapes and shades and forms." --Jill McCorkle

About the Author

Elizabeth Cox is the author of four novels: Night Talk, Familiar Ground, The Ragged Way People Fall Out of Love, and The Slow Moon; a collection of stories, Bargains in the Real World; and a collection of poetry, I Have Told You and Told You. She has received the Robert Penn Warren Award for fiction for her body of work and is a member of Fellowship of Southern Writers.