Passing

Nella Larsen

15 October 2020
9781529047974
160 pages

Synopsis

Coming to Netflix! Nella Larsen’s Passing is a distinctive and revealing novel about racial identity, now a critically acclaimed film adaptation by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgård.

Irene Redfield, married to a successful physician, enjoys a comfortable life in Harlem, New York. Reluctantly, she renews her friendship with old school friend, Clare Kendry. Clare, who like Irene is light skinned, ‘passes’ as white and is married to a racist white man who has no idea about Clare’s racial heritage. Clare is very persuasive and Irene, despite misgivings, can’t resist letting her back into her world. As tensions mount between friends and between couples, this taut and mesmerizing narrative spins towards an unexpected end.

This edition of Passing features an introduction by writer and academic, Christa Holm Vogelius.

A fascinating inquiry into the nature of race (and a window into the Harlem Renaissance) catalyzed by a chance meeting between two childhood friends. A page-turning classic.
A tragic story rooted in inescapable facts of American life . . . Passing is the work of a highly talented and thoughtful writer
A short, easy, engaging read . . . as much as it is a revealing cultural study of the 1920s, is also incredibly relevant today.