A review by beccagomezfarrell
Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid

5.0

There's so much to unpack in this layered, beautifully written story that takes place in 1990s Berkeley. Whispers of a ghost story intrigue, and then the author lolls the reader into believing all is well with the ghosts of the past until it isn't. The main character pursues her passions and obsessions with preserving the narratives of holocaust survivors while navigating her own upcoming nuptials in a time in which those nuptials aren't legal but the meaning behind them take on all the more significance because of that. The character relationships are complex, yet easy to love, and the unsaids take on more and more meaning in narrative and metaphor as the book proceeds until saying something becomes the point of it all.

Ultimately, what most pleased me about the book was simple being invited as a guest to this wedding and getting to share in joy and hope for a future that prodding the past can solidfy.