A magnificent multifaceted novel about a supremely gifted -- and divided -- family set against the backdrop of postwar America On Easter day 1939 at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall David Strom a German Jewish emigre scientist meets Delia Daley a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together and--against all odds and better judgment--they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time beyond identity steeped in song. But their three children must survive America's brutal here and now. Jonah Joseph and Ruth grow up during the Civil Rights era come of age in the violent 1960s and live out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. Jonah the eldest 'whose voice could make heads of state repent' follows a life in his parents' beloved classical music. Ruth the youngest chooses a militant activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph the middle child and the narrator of this generational tale struggles to remain connected to them both. The Time of Our Singing is a story of self-invention allegiance race cultural ownership the compromised power of music and the tangled loops of time that rewrite all belonging.