AKRON, OH.- Black and White," a novel by Dani Shapiro, will be the focus of the museum’s first book club meeting this spring. The new club, led by associate educator Alison Caplan and librarian Ellie Ward and inspired by the museum’s docent tour guides’ informal offsite book club, is set to officially begin on May 7 at 6:30 pm in the museum’s Martha Stecher Reed Library.­ Filled with photography, art and other relevant materials, the Akron Art Museum is the perfect place to discuss the art of the written word.

Dani Shapiro’s fifth novel, "Black and White," offers a look into the emotional struggle of an artist and her family. “Is it possible to be as fully absorbed as one needs to be to produce good, strong art – and be equally fully absorbed in raising a small child?” is the question that Shapiro asked herself when writing this novel. The book revolves around protagonist Clara, the youngest daughter of Ruth Dunne, a Manhattan photographer who achieved fame by shooting Sally Mann like photos of Clara. Unable to deal with the embarrassment of being “the girl in those pictures,” Clara leaves home at the age of 18. Fourteen years later, she must return home with her husband and daughter to care for her sick mother and sort through the emotions that made her leave.