Nine distinguished novels from the most daring voices of modern Negro literature—now available to readers everywhere.
1926
The season's most daring novel about a woman who could choose to be anything - except herself. From the Creole parlors of New Orleans to the unforgiving world of Atlanta and New York's high society, Mimi Daquin must decide if freedom is worth the price of denying her heritage.
1928
From Jamaica's celebrated poet Claude McKay comes a bold new novel of Negro life that will shock and captivate. Follow Jake Brown, a war deserter who finds redemption in the smoke-filled jazz halls and moonlit streets of Harlem. A fearless portrayal of working men and women who drink deep from life's cup, even as society scorns them.
1929
In the bustling port of Marseilles, a band of vagabonds led by the charismatic Banjo challenge society's rules while debating race, politics, and their dreams of Africa. A daring new novel of the Negro experience abroad by Claude McKay, author of Home to Harlem, capturing the raw spirit of jazz and revolution.
1929
From Philadelphia's genteel society comes a daring tale of a young woman who discovers she can "pass." Angela Murray leaves her family behind to taste forbidden freedoms in New York's art world. But as she builds a glittering new life among the white elite, she learns that the price of playing plum bun may be higher than she imagined.
In Jessie Redmon Fauset's second novel, readers will find themselves swept from quiet Philadelphia parlors to Greenwich Village's bohemian haunts and Harlem's brilliant cultural scene. This thoroughly modern story asks what we will sacrifice for success—and whether we can ever truly escape who we are. By the literary editor of The Crisis magazine and author of There Is Confusion.
1929
A gripping tale of identity, deception, and dangerous choices. Two women—childhood friends reunited by chance—find their lives irrevocably intertwined as they navigate the complexities of race, class, and desire in 1920s New York and Chicago. Their chance encounter on a sweltering Chicago afternoon sets in motion events that will shatter their carefully constructed worlds. With crystalline prose and psychological depth, Nella Larsen masterfully explores the price of ambition, the nature of belonging, and the razor's edge between freedom and safety. As these two sophisticated women circle each other through glittering parties and intimate teas, tension mounts to an unforgettable climax.
