The Street (Virago Modern Classics, Band 788)

Introduced by Tayari Jones

New York City, 1940s. In a crumbling tenement in Harlem, Lutie Johnson is determined to build a new life for herself and her eight-year-old boy, Bub - a life that she can be proud of. Having left her unreliable husband, Lutie believes that, with hard work and resolve, she can begin again; she has faith in the American dream. But in her struggle to earn money and raise her son amid the violence, poverty and racial dissonance of her surroundings, Lutie is soon trapped: she is a woman alone, 'too good-looking to be decent', with predators at every turn.

'A powerful, uncompromising work of social criticism . . . Few works of fiction have so clearly illuminated the devastating impact of racial injustice' CORETTA SCOTT KING

'The Street is my favorite type of novel, literary with an astonishing plot . . . Petry is the writer we have been waiting for, hers are the stories we need to fully illuminate the questions of our moment, while also offering a page-turning good time . . . insightful, prescient and unputdownable prose' TAYARI JONES, NEW YORK TIMES