Mindy Thompson Fullilove offers a series of meditations on her remarkable family and the places where they have lived. She lovingly recalls her parents: her father, a black leader of the labor movement, and her mother, a white woman whose boundless generosity was always in conflict with the racial divisions of the world around her. "Place" is a major actor in her family story, and in the course of bringing the backgrounds of six generations into the foreground, Fullilove uncovers the many lives—her own included—that are rooted in those places.

Mindy Thompson Fullilove is a professor of clinical psychiatry and public health at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist for the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

"Consistently original and provocative"—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A radiant and insightful collection of personal essays which meditate upon the importance of place in the development of character. . . . A literary antidote to the displacement and upheaval of modern life as we go crashing headlong into the new millennium."—Kirkus

"Fullilove presents an extraordinary collection of highly intelligent and beautifully written essays. . . . More than memoir, the essays are an exploration of the psychological importance of place in the life of an individual. . . . Fullilove's writing is warm, gracious, and intelligent."—Booklist