Substitute Me

Zora Anderson is a 30-year-old African American middle class, college educated woman, trained as a chef, looking for a job. As fate would have it, Kate and Craig, a married couple, aspiring professionals with a young child are looking for a nanny.

Zora seems perfect. She's an enthusiastic caretaker, a competent house keeper, a great cook. And she wants the job, despite the fact that she won't let her African American parents and brother know anything about this new career move. They expect much more from her than to use all that good education to do what so many Blacks have dreamed of not doing: working for White folks. Working as an au pair in Paris, France no less, was one thing, they could accept that. Being a servant to a couple not much older nor more educated, is yet another. Every adult character involved in this tangled web is hiding something: the husband is hiding his desire to turn a passion for comic books into a business from his wife, the wife is hiding her professional ambitions from her husband, the nanny is hiding her job from her family and maybe her motivations for staying on her job from herself.

Memorable characters, real-life tensions and concerns and the charming--in a hip kind of way--modern-day Park Slope, Fort Greene, Brooklyn setting make for an un-put-down-able read.

Author: Lori L. Tharps
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 08/24/2010
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.16h x 5.32w x 0.98d
ISBN: 9781439171103

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2010
Essence 07/12/2010 pg. 64
Entertainment Weekly 08/02/2010 pg. 75
Booklist 08/01/2010 pg. 28
Publishers Weekly 11/01/2010

About the Author
Tharps, Lori L.: - Lori L. Tharps is the author of Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain, named by Salon.com as one of their top ten books for 2008, and the co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. She is an assistant professor of journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, where she makes her home with her husband and family. She doesn't have a nanny.