Speed of Light

A summer of hatred...discovery

Eleven-year-old Audrey Ina has lived in the town of Blue Gap all her life, and thinks she knows everyone in it and has nothing to fear. It's 1956, eleven years after Hitler's defeat, and nobody seems to even remember the war -- except for Audrey's Tante Pesel, who survived Auschwitz but is still unable to talk about it.

Then one day, someone throws a rock through the window of her father's factory. Is it because he agreed to stand up for the right of a black man to join the police force? Or is it because their family is Jewish? Either way, Audrey Ina soon discovers that her sleepy southern town is full of hatred, fear, and violence beneath its surface, and that she and her family are in danger. Most vulnerable of all is Tante Pesel, whose nightmares seem to be coming true all over again. Will she survive the hatred that threatens to tear the family apart? What can a girl like Audrey do to stand up against injustice?