Black Rainbow

Told from two full points of view, the central premise is a woman kidnaps a
pregnant mother, murders her, and claims the child as her own. However, the
authorities return the infant to her biological family, and prosecute the killer. The
novel asks what would happen to such as child, and would there be any
relationship between the child and the killer? Set in the late 60’s, in New Jersey, a
surreal lower east side of Manhattan, and a magic-imbued remote northern New
Mexico. The first point of view is Rania’s—the kidnapped infant, now a teen-ager.
Her school provides little, except for a friendship with the charismatic Monique.
Her family’s Armenian heritage hints at a dark historical past. Slowly, Rania
uncovers the story of her birth. Egged on by Monique, she begins to want to
search for her mother’s killer. But Monique has problems of her own. Her father’s
flirtations towards her are progressing to something more sinister. Rebellious and
longing for a bigger world—Monique disappears after a peace rally. Rania goes in
search of her aided by Michael, who despite Rania’s coolness proves himself a
worthy and a streetwise guide and boyfriend—Rania enters “Bablyon” as the
novel shifts into magical realism in an old warehouse with mix of light shows,
music, magic theater; a place of transformation. Here, Rania finds—and loses— Monique fueling the rest of her journey—a solo quest to the desert and
mountains of New Mexico to find the killer, Mary Rose. The second point of view
is that of Mary Rose. An ordinary young woman from a rural town outside of
Albuquerque, she is driven mad by miscarriages and infertility. After she briefly
kidnaps a child, and continues to be haunted by ghost babies, her marriage starts
to dissolve. Her crime of murder leads to her incarceration in a mental institution.
Here her healing begins. Mentored by a co-inmate, she recovers, and in an
administrative slip-up, is released. Mary Rose travels to a remote Benedictine monastery, where she is taken in and helped to return to a normal life. She goes to work at a spa, living in a trailer, until Rania appears on her doorstep. Mary Rose’s desire for a child overwhelms her reality, and never allows its fruition. For both protagonists, their identity is interwoven with the failure of their relationship as mother and child. If both Rania and Mary Rose are missing pieces of themselves, it is only in confronting each other that they can be whole.