The Street: by Ann Petry (Virago Modern Classics)

From the time she was born, she had been hemmed into an ever-narrowing space, until now she was very nearly walled in . . . 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.Having left her unreliable husband, Lutie believes that with hard work and resolve, she can begin again.But in her struggle to earn a respectable living 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.The first book by a Black woman to sell more than a million copies, The Street combines the pace of a thriller with an unflinching portrait of injustice and hope. Introduced by TAYARI JONES'The prose is clear, the plot is page-turning, the characters are utterly believable' CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE'Like the human experience, this book is riddled with pain, but somehow powered by hope' TAYARI JO