[EXCERPT] That Kind of Mother

In Rumaan Alam’s second novel, That Kind of Mother, set in the Washington, D.C., area in the 1990s, the well-meaning but privileged and naïve Rebecca becomes deeply attached to her newborn son’s nanny. When Priscilla dies in childbirth, Rebecca adopts her son—though she is unprepared for the ramifications of raising a black child as a white mother. In this excerpt, Priscilla’s grown daughter, Cheryl, and her husband, Ian, speak with Rebecca about the importance of talking with her son about racism and interactions with the police.