Quicksand
'The overlooked American writer who blows apart modern thinking on race' Telegraph
Born to a white mother and an absent black father, and despised for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself. As a young woman, Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even here she feels different.
Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable life and place for herself, but ends up back where she started, choosing emotional freedom that quickly translates into a narrow existence.
Nella Larsen's powerful first novel, has intriguing autobiographical parallels and at the same time invokes the international dimension of African American culture of the 1920s.
Slow, moving and reflective, Quicksand is a detailed and evocative portrayal of a biracial woman's inner life.
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Publishing has a diversity problem. There are less 'diverse' books being published which limits the discoverability and reach of those authors.
Representation is important. Read more about why we exist here.
Reviewed by Marina
First published in 1928, this book is still shockingly relatable to the very contemporary experiences of 1) getting fed up and quitting a bad job, 2) wanting to run away from your whole life by upping and moving, and 3) the strangeness in how different people treat you in different places as a visibly biracial person.
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An anti-racist social enterprise bookstore specialising in BIPOC books.
Only about 11% of books published are by BIPOC authors — so unless you specifically seek out books by BIPOC authors, you aren't likely to find very many of them organically. At Amplify, BIPOC authors are highlighted and celebrated. Here, they don't have to fight to be seen, and you don't have to fight to find them.
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