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
