"Sometimes it's better to leave the past in the past..." When Rosa McKinney first heard those words from her aging mother, she couldn't understand the pain of knowing one's own history. After a class project she does with her students reveals a slice of her mother's background, she started wishing she'd heeded her mother's advice... Set in the 1940's, in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts, Rosa sets out to uncover the mystery of her family- as well as the key to her true self. Startling discoveries leads her to find out what lies behind her birth and her mother's earlier life. Dealing with the burden of a possible childless future and an interracial marriage, Rosa somehow burrows her way through the tumultuous ruins of what came before. Red and Green Apples is an enriching family saga spanning from the racial divide of the 1940s to the melting pot of the 1990s. A story that faces the cruelty and inhumanity of racism, it has the power to stay imprinted on the heart.