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 an unconscious 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.