A young Black girl watches as her aunt's multiple suitors disrupt her
family's privacy. The same girl, now on the cusp of adulthood, shares
her family's growing fears that her father has disappeared.
Acclaimed author Ann Petry penned these and the other unforgettable
narratives in Miss Muriel and Other Stories more than 70 years ago,
yet in them, contemporary listeners recognize characters who exist today
and dilemmas that recur again and again: the reluctance of African
Americans to seek help from the police, the rage that erupts in a Black
man worn down by brutality, the tyranny that the young can visit on
their elders regardless of race.
Originally published between 1945 and 1971, Petry's stories capture the
essence of the African American experience since the 1940s.