**With a new introduction from New York Times best-selling author Tayari
Jones, The Street was Ann Petry's first novel, originally published in
1946 and hailed by critics as a masterwork.
**The Street tells the poignant, often heartbreaking story of Lutie
Johnson, a young black woman, and her spirited struggle to raise her son
amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late
1940s.
Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis in
her pursuit of the American dream for herself and her son, Bub. Lutie
fully subscribes to the belief that if she follows the adages of
Benjamin Franklin by working hard and saving wisely, she will be able to
achieve the dream of being financially independent.
The first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million
copies, its haunting tale still resonates today.
"Petry is the writer we have been waiting for; hers are the stories we
need to fully illuminate the questions of our moment, while also
offering a page-turning good time. Ann Petry, the woman, had it all, and
so does her insightful, prescient and unputdownable prose."--Tayari
Jones, New York Times Book Review
