Passing (Penguin Classics)

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK
Nella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. A New York Times EditorsÕ Choice. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander SkarsgŒrd

One of The AtlanticÕs Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to ÒpassÓ as a white woman. ClareÕs childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by ClareÕs risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, ClareÕs interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for IreneÕs black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. This edition features a new introduction by Emily Bernard and notes by Thadious M. Davis.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.