Secret Love Paperback - 2002

by Bart Schneider

Jake Roseman is a forty-five-year-old attorney and media darling who leads civil rights protests with a surer touch than he manages his personal life. When Nisa Bohem, a young black activist and actress, is drawn to Jake, the two start a playful, complex romance. Nisa's actor friend Peter also crosses the color line in his love for Simon Sims, the estranged son of a renowned Baptist minister, who tries to reconcile his homosexuality with his participation in the Nation of Islam. Bart Schneider relates these stories with lyrical, sure-footed prose, creating a vibrant, intensely personal tale about four people trying to regain equilibrium amid the political and social upheaval of San Francisco in the mid-1960s.

"Hip, soulful, irresistible . . . Secret Love is simultaneously a love story and a fine-grained investigation of race relations. . . . Schneider is a savvy and empathetic writer. . . . [He] relates his story with a tough-minded grace." (The New York Times Book Review)

"This extraordinary novel explores our deepest yearnings for joy and self-realization." (The Washington Post)

"Like Baldwin in Another Country . . . Schneider uses the drama of forbidden relationships as a way of approaching his real subject-the human heart in turmoil." (Booklist)