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"Brimming with rich, electrifying tales of the precious dye and its ancient heritage, Indigo is also the story of a personal quest: Catherine McKinley is the descendant of a clan of Scots who wore indigo tartan; Jewish ""rag traders""; a Massachusetts textile factory owner; and African slaves-her ancestors were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where a length of blue cotton could purchase human life. McKinley's journey in search of beauty and her own history leads her to the West African women who dye, trade, and wear indigo-women who unwittingly teach her that buried deep in the folds of their cloths is all of destiny and the human story."

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9781608195886

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Gorgeously recounts McKinley's journey to West Africa's teeming markets and churning factories, through funerals and uprisings, to find the bluest of the blues' <i>Los Angeles Times</i></p> [McKinley's] discoveries resonate, and her unique experiences provide a vivid snapshot of the cultures she encountered in Africa. <i>Washington Post</i></p> An eye-opening account of the controversial role this gorgeous, coveted pigment has played through the millennia. <i>Elle</i></p>

[McKinley] introduces the reader to a wide cast of characters who slip in and out of the narrative unobtrusively. -- Kirkus Reviews <p> <p> The sections in which [McKinley] focuses on the history of indigo are fascinating, and some of her vivid descriptions shimmer with an almost cinematic quality. --Ingrid Levin, Library Journal <p> Call it blue gold, the devil's dye, or the cloth of history; indigo is the color that launched the ships and caravans of worldwide commerce. It encompasses the slave trade, the factories of European industry, and the woman-dominated markets of Africa. It binds the blue sails of Columbus's ships to denim jeans and the exquisite hand-woven fabrics collectors crave. Catherine McKinley follows her passion, her 'insatiable, desire' for this beauty and history to Africa. There she enters a complex world--ancient, post-modern, stable and volatile. It demands that she be student, adventurer, aesthete and journalist: she meets these demands with restless inte

Author Information

Catherine E. McKinley is the author of The Book of Sarahs. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she has taught creative nonfiction, and a former Fulbright Scholar in Ghana, West Africa. She lives in New York City.

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