This Roth novel follows Coleman Silk, the dean of a New England university. As a light-skinned black man he has not revealed his African-American background to his family or his work place. This comes back to haunt him when he is accused of racism by 2 black students.

Silk's love interest in the book is Faunia Farley, a woman he believes is illiterate and who works at a dairy farm, milking the cows. I chose to create the picture of the milk bottle Silk picks up from the farm weekly (to get close to Faunia) for the cover, because it gave me a not too literal opportunity to illustrate the black/white theme in the story, but also because the image somehow associates with the title on a subconscious level.

However, the editor of the book chose the second cover with the picture of the crows. This photo (which I took on a trip to Japan) refers to a crow, Prince, which Faunia kept as a pet. She was fascinated with his blackness and his ostracization from his peers.

This cover was created for the Danish imprint Gyldendal.