The Color of Love

A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl

By: Marra B. Gad

Narrated by: Marra B. Gad

Winner of the 2020 Midwest Book Award in Autobiography/Memoir, The Color of Love is an unforgettable memoir about a mixed-race Jewish woman who, after 15 years of estrangement from her racist great-aunt, helps bring her home when Alzheimer’s strikes

In 1970, three-day-old Marra B. Gad was adopted by a White Jewish family in Chicago. For her parents, it was love at first sight - but they quickly realized the world wasn’t ready for a family like theirs.

Marra’s biological mother was unwed, White, and Jewish, and her biological father was Black. While still a child, Marra came to realize that she was “a mixed-race, Jewish unicorn”. In Black spaces, she was not “Black enough” or told that it was okay to be Christian or Muslim but not Jewish. In Jewish spaces, she was mistaken for the help, asked to leave, or worse. Even in her own extended family, racism bubbled to the surface.

Marra’s family cut out those relatives who could not tolerate the color of her skin - including her once beloved, glamorous, worldly Great-Aunt Nette. After they had been estranged for 15 years, Marra discovers that Nette has Alzheimer’s and that only she is in a position to get Nette back to the only family she has left. Instead of revenge, Marra chooses love and watches as the disease erases her aunt’s racism, making space for a relationship that was never possible before.

The Color of Love explores the idea of yerusha, which means “inheritance” in Yiddish. At turns heart-wrenching and heartwarming, this is a story about what you inherit from your family - identity, disease, melanin, hate, and, most powerful of all, love. With honesty, insight, and warmth, Marra B. Gad has written an inspirational, moving chronicle proving that, when all else is stripped away, love is where we return and love is always our greatest inheritance.

©2019 Marra B. Gad (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

An American Tragedy

So sad that people have to endure this horrible bigotry. Thank you to author for sharing your story with such grace and love. Anyone who reads it will benefit. It should be required that all teachers read this story to their class by first grade so children can teach those parents who still harbor hatred that all are created equal in this country.

Beautiful, honest , heartfelt

From beginning to end, a wonderful story. Beautifully written. Full of raw honesty, humor and wit.
I was captivated by the whole story. It took me on a inside journey throughout the life of the writer. I felt every emotion possible.
Very well written and narrated. I was truly impressed. Thank you for sharing your story.

enlightening and moving

The author is the best narrator I have ever encountered. I cried and laughed as her remarkable story unfolded.

profound, powerful

love it so much. thanks very much to marra, for her excellent words and voice

The author reading the book did an outstanding job.

There was nothing I disliked about the book, I think the author was amazing and the way she told her story and it made me really think a lot about how other people must feel that maybe we don’t know.