Make Believe

Make Believe is the story of a family devastated by tragedy. At its heart is four-year-old Bo, who has been orphaned by a car accident that killed his mother. He becomes the focus of a fierce custody struggle between two very different sets of grandparents, one black and one white. It takes Bo away from the indulgent and loving black family, the Gilberts, and into the unforgiving world of his mother s stiff-necked and religious stepfather, Eddie Gantz. As the adults play out their secret desires, hidden resentments and stubborn self-righteousness, Bo is at the mercy of their fallible adult demands and dreams. Moving effortlessly between the perspective of a child, observing and only very partially understanding what he sees, and the immediate members of his family, Joanna Scott s novel explores the vulnerability of a child s developing consciousness and the imagination with which all individuals create their own worlds.