Susan Pashman

My new novel, "Upper West Side Story," got started before the 2008 election and, when Obama won, I thought this book would become irrelevant. I thought we were entering a post-racial society.

Little did I guess that race issues would flare up even more virulently than they had in years. Today, "Upper West Side Story" is a must-read.

It is a story of friendships between a black woman and a white woman, and between their two thirteen year-old sons. Both women are optimistic leaders in their community, both working hard for racial justice.

But when the black child, Cyrus, is killed in an accident that involved his white friend, Max, everything spirals downward. All the suspicion and resentment that has been simmering beneath the surface of their liberal urban neighborhood for years is suddenly out in the open. Political intrigue and manipulation enter the scene and the friendship that was so nourishing to both women is severely threatened.

With headlines revealing the dark underbelly of our nation's feelings about race, this tender, heart-rending tale of love and friendship, of parenting and childhood innocence, should be at the top of your list of must-reads.

I am a philosophy professor, a retired attorney and the single mother of two sons who attended public school in Brooklyn.