Passing - Paperback

by Nella Larsen (Author)

"Absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable." -- Alice Walker
"A work so fine, sensitive, and distinguished that it rises above race categories and becomes that rare object, a good novel." -- The Saturday Review of Literature
Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence-until she is shaken out of it by a chance encounter with a childhood friend who has been "passing for white." An important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen was the first African-American woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Her fictional portraits of women seeking their identities through a fog of racial confusion were informed by her own Danish-West Indian parentage, and Passing offers fascinating psychological insights into issues of race and gender.

Author Biography

One of the shining stars of the Harlem Renaissance, Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen (April 13, 1891-March 30, 1964) left behind only two novels and a handful of short stories -- but Larsen's remarkable voice and vision has ensured her place in literary history.