As a boy in Brooklyn, James McBride knew his mother was different. But when he asked her about it, she'd simply say, 'I'm light-skinned.' Later he wondered if he was different too and asked his mother if he was black or white. 'You're a human being,' she snapped. 'Educate yourself or you'll be a nobody!' And when James asked what colour God was, she said, 'God is the color of water'...

As an adult, McBride finally persuaded his mother to tell her story - the story of a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the South, who fled to Harlem, married a black man, founded a Baptist church and put twelve children through college.

THE COLOR OF WATER is James McBride's tribute to his remarkable, eccentric, determined mother - and an eloquent exploration of what family means.