Italian Literature Book Group: The Color Line by Igiaba Scwego

Dante Italian Book Club: Fall 2025

Participation is open to all Dante members.  The book selections are mainly by Italian authors of any genre (of course, translated into English).  The group will meet once every 6 weeks, on Friday evening from 5-6:30 pm, in  private homes.  Our self directed group will be facilitated by 5 core members.

 📚 The December  Book Selection  — "The Color Line" by Igiaba Scwego.

Inspired by true events, this gorgeous, haunting novel intertwines the lives of two Black female artists more than a century apart, both outsiders in Italy.

It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn’t let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city’s most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiancé about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier.

    In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.

    Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be “other,” to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.

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*the size of the group is limited to 10 members.  If you are not yet a paid member of Dante, sign-up here.