FEATURED BOOK: WHEN FOLKLORIST AND JOURNALIST Emily Urquhart’s daughter Sadie was born with albinism, a condition that, for many, conjures vivid images but very few facts, Urquhart applied her trades to Sadie’s inherited fate. Beyond the Pale (HarperCollins) delves into the world of myth but also modern-day horror. Urquhart travels to East Africa, where people with albinism are violently persecuted. She tracks down a poet who has written a work based on tales of a colony of people with albinism. She attends a conference for people with the condition. And, finally, she follows a trail of old photographs to her father’s childhood hometown of Niagara Falls where, in the early 1900s, there lived four sisters with white hair and thick glasses.

While Urquhart’s recollections thrum with anxiety, her daughter Sadie sings. The little girl is vibrant, energetic and navigates the world with creative aplomb, working around ...