The Housekeeper and the Professor

The Housekeeper and the ProfessorYoko Ogawas The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family. He is a brilliant math professor with a peculiar problemever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short term memory. She is an astute young housekeeper, with a ten year old son, who is hired to care for him. And every morning, as the Professor and

must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda's insistence

until Jen discovers a way to get messages to the outside

When she wakes up

racial identity

half-African father

Over a long holiday weekend

and the unpredictability of their future is revealed

As the pressures of assimilation compound

It's a place for artistry and comradery and

this formidable work is both a condemnation of social injustice and an unsparing portrait of the Black experience in America

and personal

It not only highlights the current data around women's health issues