Virago Modern Classics: The Street

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 Jones

'I've recently had my brain re-wired by Ann Petry, and it's that exhilarating feeling of falling in love with one of your lifetime writers for the first time' - Brandon taylor