In 1966, when Sandra was ten, the police removed her from school and she was reclassified as coloured.

When I Was White is the mesmerizing story of a black woman born to white parents during the most unforgiving years of official racism in South Africa. Sandra Laing was officially registered and raised as a white child. But when she was sent to a conservative boarding school, she was mercilessly persecuted because of her dark skin and frizzy hair-the results, her parents said, of a genetic throwback.

In 1966, when Sandra was ten, the police removed her from school and she was reclassified as 'coloured.' In a bitter court battle followed closely by the press, Sandra's parents fought, and lost. Then, as a teenager, Sandra eloped with a black man, and her parents disowned her. She struggled with poverty, illness, and the injustice of race laws. With the end of apartheid in 1994, Sandra vowed to find her mother.

Her long, troubling search and their ultimate reunion forms the book's surprising and deeply moving conclusion. Drawing on a wealth of research, including extensive interviews with Sandra Laing, her family and friends, as well as access to previously sealed government files, Judith Stone has written a close-up, compelling account of a remarkable woman whose life stands as a tribute to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.

Judith Stone is a contributing editor at O, The Oprah Magazine, and the author of Light Elements: Essays on Science from Gravity to Levity. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Newsday, Elle, and Vogue, among other publications. She has also appeared on national television and radio.

ISBN-13: 978-1401309374

Paperback: 352 pages

Publisher: Miramax; Reprint edition (April 8, 2008)

Price: $10.46