Night Talk

At night, under the same roof, under the same moon, nothing divides the girls, Evie and Janey Louise. Talking in their beds they discuss their mothers, Agnes and Volusia; their absent fathers, one dead, one on the other side of the country; and their brothers, one fighting polio, the other fighting in the U.S. Army.
Their closeness blinds Evie to the divisions of daylight - that she is white and her best friend is black; that it is her family's house they live in; that Janey's mother is the housekeeper for Evie's family. For years the inequities of race so permeate their lives that they remain invisible to Evie. It is only later in life that a startling series of events forces Evie to ask Jane for forgiveness.
With elegance and compassion, Elizabeth Cox charts the course of two unlikely friendships, between two daughters and their remarkable mothers. Largely set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights days of the fifties and sixties, Night Talk also confronts the unexpected challenges of the present day. Throughout the novel, Cox exposes the insidious and persistent barriers that prevent us from being honest with each other.

Elizabeth Cox teaches one semester each year at Duke University in North Carolina.