
Press Reviews
- New York Times
Her work endures not merely because of the strength of its message but its artistry . . . Petry will always feel on time. Her kind of talent will always feel startling and sui generis: The music of her sentences, and their discipline; her unerring sense of psychology; the fullness with which she endows each character, which must be understood as a kind of love; the plots that commandeer whole hours and days . . . Her work endures not only because it illuminates reality, but because it harnesses the power of fiction to supplant it
Tayari Jones
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 . . . The Narrows is the story of a doomed interracial romance that proves that passion and prejudice are not mutually exclusive
- Wall Street Journal
Ann Petry's novels The Street and The Narrows are masterpieces of social realism - volatile but exacting, heartbreaking but often brutally funny . . . The Narrows is capacious, elliptical and immersive. Slowly and comprehensively, it envelops you . . . The scenes seethe with rage, and yet the book's sheer profusion makes it feel joyous and celebratory
- Kirkus Reviews
A powerful and moving book, dealing with an almost proscribed subject . . . A book to watch
- Yale Review
Mainly about human beings, and the messes we sometimes make of our own lives