Meet Ellen Margolis. As assistant curator at the Foundation for the Preservation of Memory in San Francisco, Ellen records the testimony of Holocaust survivors before the War’s last witnesses vanish. Schooled by the professionals (her parents, her grandmother, the survivors themselves), Ellen considers herself an expert in emotional containment. But, when Ellen and her girlfriend Francine decide to get married, Ellen finds herself set upon by her own lingering ghosts. As the two young women beat their own early path toward marriage equality, Ellen's longing to plumb a legacy of intergenerational silence draws her into a clandestine entanglement with a wily Holocaust survivor--a woman with more to hide than tell--and a search for buried history. If there is to be a wedding, Ellen must decide: How much do you need to share to be true to the one you love? Set in ebullient, 1990s Dot-com era San Francisco, Paper is White is a novel about the gravitational pull of the past and the words we must find to make ourselves whole.

"PAPER IS WHITE is a wonderfully tender, inventive exploration of survival, secrets, memory, and love. Zaid's characters are wholly original and riveting, and this story is funny, moving and necessary; you will love this book."
Karen E. Bender, author of Refund, Finalist for the National Book Award 

"Paper is White is a funny, bright novel about the stories we think we need and the stories that turn out to matter more than we could have imagined. I loved being in Hilary Zaid’s world."
–Ramona Ausubel, author of No One is Here Except All of Us and Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty

"Exploring the relationship between intimacy and truth-telling, as well as how past secrets complicate present-day commitments, this beautiful novel reveals generations of love."
Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of A THIN BRIGHT LINE

“Written across histories as seemingly varied as Lithuania’s Jewish Kovno Ghetto and Queer Nation San Francisco, Paper Is White connects them in a very different sort of adventure novel, where remembering someone you love becomes one of the most radical things you can do. Zaid is fierce, a rebel with a cause, and her breathtaking leaps of imagination make new worlds possible."
--Alexander Chee, author of Queen of the Night and How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

“A beautiful, heartbreaking book about the stories that haunt us, about the ways silence can be wielded as a weapon and ultimately about how love between women can be redemptive. An important book.”
​~Nayomi Munaweera,  Award-winning author of the two novels, ISLAND OF A THOUSAND MIRRORS and WHAT LIES BETWEEN US