Or maybe it would count as fantasy; I’m not sure if the fantastic elements were treated as magic or unknown science. I’d read it years ago.
The book follows two families in the 1960s or so. One is a black family whose young daughter is raped by a white man. As a result of this, she becomes pregnant and I think she dies shortly after giving birth to a little girl. The other family is white and if I remember correctly the father dies early on. Possibly even before the son is born–which is around the same time as the little girl. The son has beautiful eyes which are remarked on as very unsual, but gets cancer and has to have them removed. At some point it’s discovered that he can sense some other dimension or something along these lines. He’s also a mathematical genius. The two families are drawn together through a strange set of coincidences. The girl also has some sort of awareness of this other world, though I can’t remember what it was.
The plot involves the rapist finding out he had fathered a child, though he doesn’t know which one it is, and he tries to find his offspring. There’s also a detective who can make coins disappear into this other dimension.
I think there’re some religious aspects to it, though I can’t recall clearly. I remember it was very odd. The rapist meditated to visualizations of bowling pins, for example. Any bells rung?