The Color of Dad

Told in the form of a letter from an academic to his estranged brother, The Color of Dad is a darkly comic short story of a married couple, Nathaniel and Cate, in crisis, from the critically acclaimed author of The Scapegoat.

I don’t agree with many of the words you’ve used, but I will give you this: They do have a way of looking at you sideways that can be unsettling. So begins a letter from Nathaniel, a PhD candidate who’s recently moved from the east coast to Orinda, California. Nathaniel knows that his brother, Brice, who still lives near their mother in Michigan, couldn’t possibly understand the nuances of his and Cate’s new life: their eclectic community, their work in academia, and the liberal, alternative thinking that shapes the way they’ve handled their fertility issues. But here, he will do his best to explain, and in the process, unravel a poignant psychological portrait of a man desperate for a happy family.