by his impoverished mother. As one of the "Mischlingskinder," mixed-race children who were the products of such controversial unions, he grows up feeling like an outsider who doesn't belong. When he is 7, his mother is forced to put him into foster care. At 18, Franz sets off for America, determined to find the father he never knew. There, he is caught up in the turmoil of the Civil Rights struggle and forced to navigate a complex tangle of race, history and politics in his search for self-realization. References External links 2008 novels Novels set in Mississippi Fiction set in 1946 Novels about racism 2008 debut novels