The Narrows

Her work endures not merely because of the strength of its message but its artistry . . . Petry will always feel on time. Her kind of talent will always feel startling and sui generis: The music of her sentences, and their discipline; her unerring sense of psychology; the fullness with which she endows each character, which must be understood as a kind of love; the plots that commandeer whole hours and days . . . Her work endures not only because it illuminates reality, but because it harnesses the power of fiction to supplant it * New York Times *
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. Ann Petry, the woman, had it all, and so does her insightful, prescient and unputdownable prose . . . The Narrows is the story of a doomed interracial romance that proves that passion and prejudice are not mutually exclusive
Ann Petry's novels The Street and The Narrows are masterpieces of social realism - volatile but exacting, heartbreaking but often brutally funny . . . The Narrows is capacious, elliptical and immersive. Slowly and comprehensively, it envelops you . . . The scenes seethe with rage, and yet the book's sheer profusion makes it feel joyous and celebratory * Wall Street Journal *
A powerful and moving book, dealing with an almost proscribed subject . . . A book to watch * Kirkus Reviews *
Mainly about human beings, and the messes we sometimes make of our own lives * Yale Review *