Description

An awardwinning journalist tells the riveting The Atlanta JournalConstitution story of his quest to reconcile with his white mother and the family hed never metand how faith brought them all together

A compelling and courageous journey that bears witness to the realities of systemic racism the complexity of identity within that system and the possibilities of reconciliationRobin DiAngelo New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

WINNER The Christopher Award The Illumination Award The Nonfiction Book Award Georgia Centers A Book All Georgians Should Read The Nautilus Award Georgia Author of the Year Award

John Blake grew up in a notorious Black neighborhood in innercity Baltimore that became the setting for the HBO series The Wire There he became a selfdescribed closeted biracial person hostile toward white people while hiding the truth of his mothers race The son of a Black man and a white woman who met when interracial marriage was still illegal Blake knew this much about his mother She vanished from his life not long after his birth and her family rejected him because of his race

But at the age of seventeen Blake had a surprise encounter that uncovered a disturbing family secret This launched him on a quest to reconcile with his white family His search centered on two questions Where is my mother and Where do I belong More Than I Imagined is Blakes propulsive true story about how he answered those questions with the help of an interracial church a loving caregivers sacrifice and an inexplicable childhood encounter that taught him the importance of forgiveness

Blake covered some of the biggest stories about race in America for twentyfive years before realizing that facts dont change people relationships do He owes this discovery to radical integration which was the only way forward for him and his familyand is the only way forward for America as a multiracial democracy More Than I Imagined is a hopeful story for our difficult times

Praise for More Than I Imagined

An incredibly moving memoir that both examines and complicates our understanding of race in America today More Than I Imagined is overflowing with empathy and full of humanityClint Smith New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed

This is a book of gutsy hope and not of despair of reconciliation and not of hatred Both sides of the racial divide need the voice that Blake is uniquely qualified to offerPhilip Yancey author of Whats So Amazing About Grace