Our 2026 global theme, AROUND THE WORLD, continues this month with a literary journey to Italy.
This month, we are exploring a story that unfolds in Italy, moving across more than a century as it examines art, migration, race, identity, and belonging.
We are thrilled to announce that The Color Line by Igiaba Scego has been selected as our official October 2026 Monthly Book Selection.
The Color Line by Igiaba Scego
It was the middle of the nineteenth century when Lafanu Brown audaciously decided to become an artist. In the wake of the American Civil War, life was especially tough for Black women, but she didn’t let that stop her. The daughter of a Native American woman and an African-Haitian man, Lafanu had the rare opportunity to study, travel, and follow her dreams, thanks to her indomitable spirit, but not without facing intolerance and violence. Now, in 1887, living in Rome as one of the city’s most established painters, she is ready to tell her fiancé about her difficult life, which began in a poor family forty years earlier.
In 2019, an Italian art curator of Somali origin is desperately trying to bring to Europe her younger cousin, who is only sixteen and has already tried to reach Italy on a long, treacherous journey. While organizing an art exhibition that will combine the paintings of Lafanu Brown with the artworks of young migrants, the curator becomes more and more obsessed with the life and secrets of the nineteenth-century painter.
Weaving together these two vibrant voices, Igiaba Scego has crafted a powerful exploration of what it means to be “other,” to be a woman, and particularly a Black woman, in a foreign country, yesterday and today.
Igiaba Scego is an Italian writer and journalist who was born in Rome in 1974 to Somali parents. She holds a PhD in education focused on postcolonial subjects and has conducted extensive academic work in Italy and internationally.
Her writing explores Italian and Somali histories and identities, colonial memory, migration, racism, and belonging. Through her fiction, nonfiction, and journalism, Scego has examined the connections between Italy and Africa as well as the experiences of the African diaspora in Italy.
Her works include Beyond Babylon, Adua, and La mia casa è dove sono. The latter received Italy’s Mondello Prize, while La linea del colore, published in English as The Color Line, received the Premio Napoli.
Join the Discussion
Find your nearest Mocha Girls Read chapter and join the discussion. Come ready to connect, reflect, and share space with a community of Black women who love to read.
Don’t Forget Your Reader’s Passport
As part of our 2026 journey, every Mocha Girl can collect stamps in her Mocha Girls Read Reader’s Passport.
Each month, you will experience a new story through our Monthly Book Selections and discussions. By the end of the year, your passport will reflect a full journey of literary exploration from around the world.
Mocha Girl Alysia
Latest posts by Mocha Girl Alysia (see all)
- Nominations Are Open: November 2026 Monthly Book Selection- Historical China 🇨🇳 - October 5, 2026
- October 2026 Monthly Book Selection: The Color Line by Igiaba Scego - September 21, 2026
- Let’s Vote: October Monthly Book Selection: It Happened in Italy 🇮🇹 - September 14, 2026
